The National Authority for Child Care (NACC), an attached agency of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, has urged stronger action from social media platforms, particularly Meta, to prevent the proliferation of online baby-selling and illegal adoption groups.

NACC Assistant Secretary for Operations and Services Rowena Macalintal disclosed that the agency has intensified coordination with law enforcement authorities to address the rising cases of illegal adoption.

“Right now, we are closely coordinating with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Women and Children Protection Center. We have flagged to them all the online Facebook groups we monitored involving child adoption, Babies for Sale, and online adoption pages. These are the sites where sellers, perpetrators and buyers meet and communicate,” Macalintal said.

The NACC official, however, clarified that a total takedown of all identified groups is not possible due to ongoing law enforcement operations.

“The PNP has appealed that there should be no total takedown because they have ongoing active entrapment operations. We have been apprehending perpetrators and filing cases against them,” Macalintal said.

Based on their findings, Macalintal reported that babies are being sold in the Facebook groups for amounts ranging from as low as P8,000 to as high as P130,000.