Plane birth woman 'had been raped'

A FILIPINO woman who acknowledged giving birth to a baby on a flight from the Middle East and then leaving him in the rubbish on the plane said she was raped by her employer, according to an MP.

The baby was found by a security guard at Manila's airport last Sunday in a refuse bag unloaded from a Gulf Air flight from Bahrain. The bag apparently came from the plane's toilet.

MP Lani Mercado said she met the woman yesterday.

She said the woman told her that she had been raped by her employer while working as a maid in Qatar and then became pregnant.

She said her employer's wife then forced her to return home, and she managed to hide her pregnancy and board a flight.

"She had labour pains in the plane," Mercado said. "Then she gave birth."

Mercado said the woman told her she abandoned the baby because she was afraid of what her family would say.