MANILA, Philippines?Prosecutors have asked a Quezon City court to bar the estranged brother of tycoon Lucio Tan from leaving the country while he and his family is facing trial for allegedly maltreating an underage maid.
In a two-page pleading, assistant city prosecutor Pedro Tresvalles asked Judge Lourdes Giron to issue a hold departure order against businessman Mariano Tanenglian in relation to the charges filed against him.
Giron, the presiding judge of of Regional Trial Court Branch 102, is hearing the 10 criminal cases against Tanenglian, his wife Aleta, and children Fayette and Maximilian for child abuse and serious illegal detention.
The case, which was based on the complaint of Tanenglian?s former housemaid Mary Jane Sollano, was raffled off to Branch 102, a family court as Sollano was a minor when she was first hired.
Branch 102, as a family court, disallows parties other than the complainant and the accused from inquiring about the case.
Tresvalles, in his motion for the issuance of a hold departure order, asked the court to direct immigration authorities to prevent any of the Tanenglians involved in the case from leaving the country.
?It is imperative that a hold departure order be issued directing the commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration to prevent the accused from leaving the country during the pendency of the instant case,? the assistant city prosecutor said.
Tresvalles filed the motion on January 22 or after the ten criminal cases were filed to Giron?s court.
He added that the motion ?is not intended to delay the proceedings or infringe upon the accused?s right to travel but for the aforestated reasons.?
The cases against Tanenglian et al were formally filed in court last week after the Department of Justice said there was probable cause to charge them.
The DOJ earlier approved the filing of charges against Tanenglian, particularly for eight counts of child abuse, trafficking of persons and kidnapping and serious illegal detention.
A DOJ task force on women based the case on Sollano?s complaint, as she used to work as a housemaid at the Tanenglian household on Biak-na-Bato St., Quezon City.
She accused her former employers of maltreatment, serious illegal detention, slavery and frustrated homicide.
The DOJ said the Tanenglians allegedly maltreated their housemaid and prevented her from leaving the house since she was employed by the family in 2004 at the age of 13 years old.
The Quezon City Police District, the Commission on Human Rights, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development rescued the 19-year-old housemaid from the Tanenglian household in August 2009.
