Police are hunting a suspected thief who walked away with a suitcase containing almost a million dollars of luxury goods at an airport in the Philippines.

Officers were notified by passenger Maricor Flores that her silver Rimowa cabin case had gone missing after her driver forgot to load it into their car at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila on October 1.

CCTV footage shows Maricor walking over to her black SUV while carrying her case at the airport's Bay 4, Terminal 3 area. She left it on the pavement to enter the car, thinking her driver would haul it into the vehicle, but the worker appeared to have overlooked it while carrying her husband's instead.

The family then drove away in a hurry, leaving the luggage behind.

The alleged thief - a man in a white polo shirt - was later seen sitting next to the suitcase before placing it on a trolley and walking away.

Maricar, the CEO of a local cosmetics company, said she has filed a report with the police, adding the baggage had contained diamond-studded jewellery, expensive watches, and luxury bags worth around 50 million PHP (around 880k USD).

Speaking to local media, she said: 'My driver and I had a miscommunication. That time, I saw him approaching me so I thought he would carry my suitcase into the car. Instead, he walked over to my assistant to help him first because he was carrying more bags.

'I was hysterical. I kept insisting that everything should have been there. I was already crying. The reason why I was rushing to ride the car is because my daddy was at the ICU. The day before that, the hospital had already called me saying he needed to be intubated. So I was already so drained.'

Maricar is now offering a one million PHP reward (17,600 USD) to any informants who can help track down the alleged culprit.