Investigators on Thursday questioned the suspected Philippine mother of a baby found alive in the trash of a Bahrain-to-Manila flight, after tracing the passenger assigned to a bloodstained seat on the plane.
Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said authorities planned DNA tests on the baby, who apparently was born during the weekend flight, and the 30-year-old woman, who was tracked down on Wednesday in a remote northern province.
Authorities brought her to Manila for questioning and testing, which may not yield results until next week. They did not release her name.
"We want to be very sure that we won't ascribe this act to the wrong person," Soliman told The Associated Press.
The baby's fate drew worldwide attention after he was discovered on Sunday when a security officer on the Ninoy Aquino International Airport's tarmac spied something moving in a trash bag that was unloaded from the Gulf Air flight and believed to have come from one of plane's toilets.
He found the pounds six, nine ounce (three-kilogram) newborn still attached to placenta-- wrapped in tissue paper. Airport officials said the baby, already bluish in colour, may have died within a few minutes had he not been found.
The baby, temporarily named George Francis after Gulf Air's flight code GF, is now fine but has undergone an X-ray due to two bumps on his head, welfare officer Thelsa Biolena said.
About 20 couples, including some from abroad, have offered to adopt the boy, she said."