NEW YORK -- AMBASSADOR Lauro Liboon Baja Jr., who headed the Philippine Mission to the United Nations from 2003 to 2007, is one of four defendants in a civil complaint alleging trafficking, forced labor, peonage and racketeering.
The case was filed on June 24 before Judge Victor Marrero of the New York Southern District Court. The co-accused are the ambassador’s wife Norma Castro Baja, his daughter Maria Elizabeth Baja Facundo and the Baja-owned Labaire International Travel Inc.
The complaint was filed by 39-year-old Marichu Suarez Baoanan through lawyers Aaron Mendelsohn of Troutman Sanders and Ivy O. Suriyopas of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Ambassador Baja, 71, was also president of the UN Security Council in June 2004.
He has retired and is now the foreign affairs consultant of Senate President Manuel Villar. Baja could not be reached for comment last night.
Baoanan, who holds a degree in nursing from Unciano Colleges and General Hospital in the Philippines, said she arrived in the United States in January 2006 with a diplomatic “red” passport and visa, as a “personal employee” of Ambassador Baja.
She said she stayed at the five-story Philippine consular residence at 15 East 66th Street, New York—a townhouse where she was made to work 16 hours daily, seven days a week, in the Baja household.
Baoanan said she was paid only a total of $100 for three months of work, and another $100 for taking care of Facundo’s son who, she said, was allowed to hit her.
The townhouse—with a sizeable ballroom, hand-painted wallpaper, 16th-century Italian artworks and costly European furniture and carpets—was known as Imelda Marcos’ New York residence during the martial rule of her late husband Ferdinand Marcos.
Currently, the two upper floors serve as the consul general’s residence, while the three lower floors are reserved for the head of the Philippine Mission to the UN.
Original agreement
In her complaint, Baoanan said she slept in the basement, using a thin blanket against the cold.
She said she had to accompany Norma Baja grocery-shopping wearing only her summer clothes and sandals even though it was winter.
She claimed that she was verbally abused whenever she asked about her original agreement with Norma Baja.
This original agreement purportedly included transportation to the United States, a visa, work authorization and help in finding a nursing job.
Norma Baja purportedly made the offer to Baoanan at the Labaire International Travel office in Manila, to which the latter was taken by a Juanita “Babes” Maglalang.
The package deal price was P500,000, Baoanan said.
She said that when she was unable to meet that price, Norma Baja reduced it to P250,000.
Baoanan said she made the payment in three installments, from November 2005 to January 2006.
She said the first installment was handed to Norma Baja and the last two to Labaire International Travel.
Domestic helper
Baoanan said that in December 2005, Norma Baja took her regular “green” passport and accompanied her to the Department of Foreign Affairs to apply for a new diplomatic “red” passport as Ambassador Baja’s “personal employee.”
She said she was made to sign a contract that she was not allowed to read, and was instructed by Norma Baja to tell the DFA that she was to be a domestic helper in the Baja household.
But once in New York, Baoanan said, she was told by Norma Baja that she would have to work for six months as the Bajas’ maid to make up the rest of the package deal cost.
The Inquirer in Manila tried to seek comment from DFA spokesperson Claro Cristobal, but text messages and calls to his phone went unanswered.
Rico Act
Baoanan’s lawsuit cited 15 causes of action ranging from forced labor, trafficking, slavery, peonage and racketeering.
It also invoked the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act which, under Section 1964(c), allows civil claims to be brought by any person injured in his/her business or property by reason of a Rico violation.
A person who succeeds in establishing a civil Rico claim can recover up to three times the amount of actual damages for each cause of action. Baoanan’s complaint cited two causes under Rico.
But before Rico can be invoked, the complainant must prove the existence of a “criminal enterprise.” Baoanan claimed in her complaint that all four defendants not only constituted an “association in fact” but also had “an ongoing business relationship” with Juanita Maglalang.
Maglalang, according to Baoanan’s complaint, received commissions from Baja and Labaire “for recruiting Filipinos willing to pay a fee to travel to the United States.”
The complaint also named one other Filipino woman who had worked in the ambassador’s household.
No surprise
It could not be confirmed whether the DFA pays for the domestic staffing of the East 66th consular residences.
The issue did not surprise some Filipinos in New York.
“All of us know of one or two with supposed connections, and half a million pesos is the going price,” said Maximo, who refused to give his last name.
“I paid that much,” he said. “But the deal does not include being cheated or enslaved. Nagbayad ka na, babastusin ka pa (You paid up, but you’re still abused)! That’s putting salt on your wounds.”
Another case of exploitation
Only last year, the mother-in-law of Vice Consul Anthony Mandap of the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco pleaded guilty to exploiting Arlene Gado and agreed to pay her $78,000 in back wages.
According to court records, Gado, barely in her 20s, travelled to the United States in 2005 to work as a nanny in Mandap’s house in San Francisco. She was promised $8 an hour for a 40-hour workweek and $12 an hour for overtime.
But upon her arrival in California, Gado was told that she was needed by Mandap’s in-laws in New Jersey. She subsequently provided continuous care to Mandap’s incapacitated father-in-law, cleaned the house, cooked all meals, provided manicures and pedicures to the family’s friends, and was paid only a fraction of what she was promised.
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(Ninotchka Rosca is a Filipino journalist living in New York.)
