24 September 2013 Miss Martha Santos _______________ _______________

Re: Surrogate Childs Custody

Dear Miss Santos:

This legal opinion seeks to answer your questions as to the status of your agreement, what rights you have over your child, and what legal concerns you should anticipate.

As what you have provided me in the letter that you have sent, the following are the pertinent facts:

You entered in a contract with Joseph de Leon. According to the said contract, you will be carrying his child in your womb via in vitro fertilization That once you have delivered the child, you will be giving the child in exchange of Php 2,000,000.00. Aside from this payment, he also shouldered the pre-natal expenses and expenses attendant to the delivery.

You gave birth to a baby girl last month and handed her to Joseph and you subsequently received the amount promised.

Aside from the facts that you have given, I would like you to provide more information related to the donor/s of the egg/s or sperm/s used in the fertilization. I would like to know if the egg/s that was used was yours, as this would be a good defense for your case.

To begin with, surrogate motherhood is neither legal nor illegal in the Philippines. The law is silent regarding its status. No law has been enacted or has been passed regarding this. However, the Family Code of the Philippines, which is the law that guides family relations in our country, acknowledged informally this practice, however, no further recognition has been provided about surrogacy.

Here is my opinion about the status of your contract or agreement with Mr. Joseph de Leon. The agreement between you and Mr. de Leon is considered null and void since it violated a law. We can consider the act done by Mr. de Leon as child trafficking. He, being the child trafficker, has been defined by the Anti- Child Abuse Law or RA 7610 :

as any person who shall engage in trading and dealing with children including, but not limited to, the act of buying and selling of a child for money.

However, we need to prove that you did not intend to sell the child to Mr. de Leon. You will also need to return the full amount given to you, including the expenses spent pre natally and for the delivery of the child. In this provision, you will need to provide me more information so that we will be able to develop a good defense against Mr. de Leon.

With regards to your question about the rights of the child, the law presumes that she is your illegitimate child, since you were the one who gave birth to her and she was born out of wedlock. Since you are the mother, you can assume full parental authority to your child. The Family Code of the Philippines Art 176 has provided: Illegitimate children shall use the surname and shall be under the parental authority of their mother and shall be entitled to support in conformity with this Code

Custody can also be given to you by the court, since the Family Code of the Philippines Art 213 has provided: No child under seven years of age shall be separated from the mother, unless the court finds compelling reasons to order otherwise

We however, need to prove that there will be no compelling reasons to order otherwise.

The other rights that you have over your child are the right to give the child your surname, and the right for your child to be under your authority. Other rights, as provided by the Child and Youth Welfare Code of the Philippines are as follows:

Art 43. Primary Right of Parents.- The parents shall have the right to the company of their children and, in relation to all other persons or institutions dealing with childs development, the primary right and obligation to provide for their upbringing

Art 45. Right to Discipline Child. Parents have right to discipline the child as may be necessary for the formation of his good character and may therefore require from him obedience to just and reasonable rules, suggestions and admonitions.

And lastly, a legal concern which you should anticipate is that if Mr. de Leon files a criminal case against you for child trafficking since you have engaged yourself in trading or dealing your child. However, if you provide me with more documents, I will make sure to give a good defense against Mr. de Leon and the custody case of your child will be in your favor.

If you have other queries, please do not hesistate to course it through. For the mean time, please provide me copies of documents which are pertinent and important related to your concern.

One thing: my opinion is based on the laws applicable to your situation. If by any circumstance you take your plight to court, I am confident that the case will be decided in your favor.

Thank you. With Kind Regards,

(sgd) Atty. _________