A mother who resorted to selling her baby to pay online cockfight debts was among the four individuals sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of qualified trafficking in persons.

Acting Presiding Judge Teodoro Bay of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 86 also ordered the four accused to pay a fine of PHP2 million each for violating Section 4 (K) of Republic Act 9208 or the Anti Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

The National Bureau of Investigation disclosed that in March 2022, an online post of parents of an eight-month-old baby went viral.

Heavily burdened by debts due to on-line sabong, the mother decided to sell her baby through a Facebook group called “Bahay Ampunan”.

On March 3, 2022, she agreed to meet the middleman at a Quezon City restaurant to exchange her child for PHP45,000.

The transaction pushed through but later the mother changed her mind. She told investigators that she tried to contact the buyer for the return of her baby in exchange of the money paid her.

However, the buyer had blocked her messages prompting the mother to seek help through social media.

To recover the baby, the Human Trafficking Division of the National Bureau of Investigation set up an entrapment and rescue operations that resulted in the arrest of one Filipina and a Nigerian in Sta. Cruz, Laguman.

The four, including the mother, were charged in court.

“The judgement rendered by the Regional Trial Court Branch 86 in Quezon City against all accused is a living testament of the resolute effort of the NBI to eradicate human trafficking in the country, “ the NBI said in a statement.