The Philippine government is doing everything to assist the 13 Filipino surrogate mothers who were arrested and meted out four-year jail terms in Cambodia.

This was stressed by Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty, who heads the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT).

Ty said that when the women were arrested by Cambodian authorities, the Philippine embassy worked to ensure that they were treated well and held under good conditions.

Embassy personnel visited the women at the hospital where they were being held by Cambodian authorities and arranged for lawyers to represent them in the cases filed against them to ensure that their rights were protected, Ty said.

The IACAT also sent a delegation consisting of a fiscal, lawyers, and NBI agents to visit the women and coordinate with the Cambodian Department of Justice.

They discussed the possible outcomes for the Filipinas, Ty said. The delegation informed their Cambodian counterparts of the Philippine government’s position under its laws, which state that the women are victims of human trafficking.

The Cambodian government, however, had a different perspective. Nonetheless, Ty said the Cambodian government can assist and ease the women’s predicament.

The issue of the babies’ citizenship was also discussed by the parties. The Philippine government’s position is that since the surrogate mothers are Filipino citizens, the babies are also Filipino.

“Our law is clear: whoever gives birth to the baby, that woman is the mother, and the baby takes her citizenship,” Ty said.

“And the reason for this, according to our laws, is clear. Whoever gives birth to the child has a legal filiation with the child. Therefore, for us, they are Filipino and we want them brought back here to the Philippines,” he added.