Phillippines ? A Philippine woman who acknowledged giving birth to a baby on a flight from the Middle East and then leaving him in the trash on the plane said she was raped by her employer, a lawmaker said Thursday.

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

Rep. Lani Mercado said she met Thursday with the woman, who told her that she had been raped by her employer while working as a maid in Qatar and 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.

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