A nurse in the Philippines' province of Cebu has become the center of outrage of netizens after she taped a newborn's mouth shut because the baby cried loudly and was too noisy.

Ryan Noval and Jasmine Badocdoc found the lips of their son Yohannes Noval taped shut as he slept. When they inquired about it from a nurse, "the baby was crying too loudly and was always asking for milk," local paper SunStar Cebu quoted the nurse's reply.

The nurse is working for the Cebu Puericulture Centre and Maternity House Inc, located in the Philippines' second-most populated Cebu province.

Badocdoc then asked the nurse to take the tape off her son's mouth. She was even told to do it herself. When the nurse eventually removed the tape, newborn Yohannes cried because "bit of skin" from his lips got stuck to the tape.

"This is not even close to being professional or humane," Noval wrote on Facebook. "Jasmine immediately asked the attending nurse 'why is there tape over his mouth?' and the reply she got from the nurse was "your baby was TOO NOISY (crying) so I put that over his mouth....'"

The parents are now consulting their lawyers on what action to pursue against the hospital and the still unidentified nurse, according to a report from dzBB radio on Tuesday.

Dr Raida Varona, medical director of the Cebu Puericulture Centre and Maternity House, said they were currently identifying the nurse responsible for the act. Her actions were not part of their protocol, Varona said.

"Meet my son Yohannes Noval!! He cannot speak about his horrific experience from the attending nurse's hands inside Maternity Hospital's nursery ... so we have to speak out for him," Noval wrote on his photo album posting which he titled 'Nightmare @ Maternity Hospital.'

"If you think your new born babies are safe, think again. Your babies could be silent victims and you will never really know about it!!!"

See baby Yohannes' taped mouth here.