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For the past 21 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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Former ambassador Lauro Baja, Jr. charged with human trafficking, peonage and slavery
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By: Jacqueline Ng Fernandez and Joseph Lariosa
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NEW YORK - Marichu Suarez Baoanan, a Filipina domestic worker has filed a civil lawsuit against Lauro Baja, Jr., a former United Nations Ambassador to the Philippines and his family on 15 counts that include trafficking, forced labor, peonage, and slavery.
Baoanan, accompanied by her lawyers, held a press conference last Wednesday in downtown Manhattan to explain the psychological, emotional, and physical abuse inflicted onto her by the Baja family.
“I served the Bajas for three months, cooked, took care of their child, cleaned their really big house, did the laundry, ironed, and read, and other tasks as a domestic worker,” said 39-year-old Baoanan, who is originally from Manila.
“In return they paid me with curses, insults, disrespect, and $100.”
Baoanan worked alone as the sole maid in Ambassador Baja’s four-story Upper East Side townhouse where she said she worked 18 hours a day, seven days a week, for three months.
“My body was so exhausted from working for them I couldn’t even sleep, I hadn’t even recovered from the previous day’s exhaustion, and already someone was already waking me up,” she said.
“I wholeheartedly thought that if I go to America I would make a lot of money and eat good food and thatI would be able to send my children to a good school,¡” a tearful Baoanan added. “I was wrong. My life was miserable. They really abused me.”
She told the press about the physical abuse she experienced in the hands of Ambassador Baja¡’s then five-year-old grandson: “One time the ambassador saw that the child hit me on the back with a broom and he did not even stop the child from doing so.”
Baoanan also spoke about the treatment she received from Norma Baja, Ambassador Baja¡¦s wife, when she arrived in America in January 2006 : ¡”When I went [out] with her it was the middle of January and it was really cold. I didn’t have a jacket or anything of the like. I asked for a pair of shoes and she [Baja] ignored me, she wouldn’t even give me a pair of shoes.”
Baoanan confessed that she “thought of committing suicide because [she] was so depressed.” However, after three months, she escaped from the Baja household with the help of someone whom she refers to only as a “good Samaritan.”
This person introduced her to DAMAYAN, a Migrant Workers Association, where she learned about her rights. DAMAYAN then contacted the Asian American Legal Defense Education Fund (AALDEF) who contacted law enforcement. A criminal investigation was then filed against the Baja family and the Baja owned, Labaire International Travel Agency.
“The criminal case has been closed, so now we are seeking civil justice for Marichu,” said Ivy Suriyopas, Baoanan’s lawyer and staff attorney for AALDEF.
Baoanan is seeking compensation for unpaid wages that are due to her and a public apology.
“During the course of the criminal investigation, she [Baoanan] was granted continued presence, which is a form of temporary immigration status that only law enforcement can apply for. And while she had continued presence, she was eligible for a work permit, and supported her T Visa [Trafficking Visa] application.”
Suriyopas further explained that Baoanan was able to receive a T Visa under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which allows a trafficking survivor “to stay in the United States for a period of time and eventually they are eligible to apply for a green card.”
She added that Baoanan was also able to apply for derivative T Visas that ultimately reunited her with her family. Baoanan has three children and a husband who all currently reside in the United States.
Meanwhile, Salvador E. Tuy, Attorney for the Bajas and Labaire International Travel Agency attended the press conference and in an interview said: “It is unfortunate that an illegal immigrant would use this ploy: file a discrimination case, a slavery case, against a person just so he or she could get a T visa.”
In response to Baoanan¡¦s statements that she only received $100 for three months work, Tuy said: “The agreed amount in the contract was $1000 a month and that there was an arrangement between the husband of Marichu and the Baja family that said she will get $100 here and the rest of the money should be paid to her husband.”
Tuy also brought pictures of Baoanan dressed in a winter coat and beanie standing in the snow smiling with Ambassador Baja’s five-yea rold grandson. Baoanan had earlier said that Norma Baja ignored her requests for winter clothing and Tuy argues that these pictures prove that her statements are false.
Tuy also said that overseas Filipino workers who decide to go abroad for work are mandated under Philippine law to send part of their earnings back to their family in the Philippines. He added that there was nothing unusual about the arrangement between the Baoanan and Baja family.
Tuy added that the whole thing is a demolition job: “The RICO claims have no leg to stand on under current jurisprudence because there is no racketeering and no pattern of abuse. This is a demolition job against Mr. Baja.”
Mr. Tuy also said that former Ambassador Baja has already issued a statement in Manila denying these charges. According to 25-page summons and complaint filed against them by Marichu Suarez Baoanan, Ms. Baoanan worked in the household of the Bajas as a “domestic worker for approximately three months.”
The Labaire International Travel, Inc., owned by the Bajas, “facilitated the visa application process, collected fees, provided temporary housing, and organized the travel of Ms. Baoanan to work at least 18 hours a day, seven days a week with no days off for three months for merely $100.”
Baoanan’s story
It was sometime in 2005 when an acquaintance of Ms. Baoanan in the Philippines, Juanita “Babes” Maglalang, told her that Norma Baja would be able to help her come to the U.S. “to work as a nurse in exchange of 500,000 pesos (about US$10,000)” to pay for her plane fare to the US, a visa, work authorization and assistance with finding employment as a nurse.
When Ms. Baoanan could not come up with 500,000 pesos, Norma Baja told her 250,000 pesos (US$5,000) would be sufficient, which she paid in three installments. After taking her passport, Norma Baja let Ms. Baoanan signed a “contract” that she was not allowed to read before signing.
Norma Baja and another woman, Dorie, accompanied Ms. Baoanan to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs and applied for a new diplomatic (red) passport as Baja’s domestic worker to expedite the passport application process. Ms. Baoanan said she thought it was Dorie, who was supposed to be Baja’s domestic worker.
When she arrived in the U.S. on Jan. 13, 2006, Ms. Baoanan was told “she had to work for Defendants Bajas for six months to pay off the remaining 250,000 pesos” and her passport confiscated. Ms. Baoanan was paid $100 for the child care of Miguel.
Her meals were “leftovers.” Sometimes Defendant Elizabeth Facundo would watch Ms. Baoanan eat, “humiliating” and “preventing her from eating further.”
Norma Baja forced Ms. Baoanan to “go to grocery shopping with her during the winter wearing only summer clothes, sandals and no jacket.”
Ms. Baoanan slept “in the basement with only a sheet that” she brought with her from the Philippines.
She could not leave the Baja household unaccompanied and was restricted from using house telephone.
Defendant Lauro Baja refused to discipline Miguel when Miguel hit Ms. Baoanan with a broom, spat in her face and kicked her in the face in front of Defendant Lauro Baja.
She was never paid the state minimum, which $6.75 per hour. Nor was she ever been paid state overtime for her work over 40 hours per week.
Ms. Baoanan said prior to her arrival, the Bajas had another domestic worker named Bernadette Tongson, who worked with the Bajas for at least one month. Prior to Tongson, there was another domestic worker who also worked in the Bajas household.
The migrant worker
Ana Liza Caballes, organizer and overall coordinator for DAMAYAN said: “This year alone migrant Filipino workers will send an estimated $16 billion in remittances [to the Philippines] according to formal channels.”
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MANILA—The Manila Regional Trial Court Thursday dismissed for lack of merit a petition by Sulpicio Lines Inc. to stop the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) from investigating the sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars.
In a three-page decision, Judge Antonio Eugenio Jr. of Manila RTC Branch 24 said the power and duty of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) revealed “no inconsistency” with the BMI’s prerogative to investigate maritime incidents.
Sulpicio Lines earlier claimed that MARINA had the sole authority to look into maritime accidents and that the BMI members were biased.
In junking Sulpicio’s petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO), the court cited the 2005 memorandum of agreement (MOA) in which MARINA and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) recognized the BMI’s
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