The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has identified Montalban as being among the country’s “hot spots” insofar as the illegal organ trade is concerned.

In a report of the Philippine Society of Nephrology to the DSWD, Montalban along with Baseco (Tondo), Caloocan City, Novaliches (Quezon City), Carmona (Cavite), Quezon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Masbate, Samar, Surigao, Zamboanga City, Davao City, and North Cotabato have become the so-called “hot spots” for organ trading.

The report likewise bared a new “modus operandi” which uses marriage to foreigners as part of the organ trafficking scheme to be able to sell organs.

No less than DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the government had received a request for consent from a Filipina who wants to donate her kidney to a Saudi whom she had just married.

But since the woman’s intention was to sell the kidney, according to Cabral, the government turned down the request.

Section 4 of Republic Act 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, states: “It shall be unlawful for any person, artificial or juridical, to commit any of the following acts: (g) To recruit, hire, adopt, transport or abduct a person, by means of threat or use of force, fraud, deceit, violence, coercion or intimidation for the purpose of removal or sale of organs of said person.”

In 2007, Philippine Society of Nephrology data showed that 81 percent (844 out of 1,046) of kidney transplants performed in the country came from living non-related donors and 51 percent (536 out of 1046) of the recipients of the kidneys were foreigners.

The Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, headed by the Department of Justice, issued the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRRs) of Section 4 (g) of Republic Act 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, in relation to Section 3 (a) of the same Act, on the Trafficking of Persons for the Purpose of Removal or Sale of Organs.

Violators of the law would be meted up to 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of not less than P1 million but not more than P2 million. Amihan Abueva, the regional coordinator of Asia Against Child Trafficking, said the World Health Organization (WHO) named the Philippines as a top organ seller along with China, India, Pakistan, Colombia, and Egypt.