(Eagle News)–The American who authorities said had tried to sneak a six-day-old baby out of the country in her sling bag said she “only wanted to give the baby a name and a church blessing.”
Manuel Dimaano, chief of the National Bureau of Investigation’s International Airport Investigation Division, said this was what Jennifer Erin Talbot, who is now facing trafficking, child abuse and kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges, told investigators when asked why the Filipino boy was in her sling bag as she tried to board a flight to the United States at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Sept. 4.
Dimaano said Talbot, a native of Ohio, had come from Davao, where the boy’s mother, Maricris Cempron Dulap, was supposedly based.
Dimaano said Dulap and the father of the boy, who is unknown, have also been charged but are at large.
According to Dimaano, Talbot said the boy’s mother, whom she found online, had wanted her to adopt her son.
Dimaano said Talbot had her first meeting with the mother on Aug. 21, and then met again and stayed with her until she gave birth.
Talbot was held after she did not declare nor present the baby boy to the immigration inspector during “departure formalities,” said Immigration Deputy Spokesperson Melvin Mabulac.
The NBI said Dimaano reached the boarding gate at Terminal 3 before she was accosted.
Dimaano said when asked, Talbot could not present any documents for the baby, including a social welfare clearance.
He said she presented a notarized affidavit of consent supposedly from the boy’s mother, but this had not been signed by Dulap.
“There was intention to sneak in and out the baby,” Dimaano said.
He said the US Embassy has already asked the NBI about the case and has given a list of lawyers who could represent the American.