No day off for ‘tortured’ maid, boss admits

There was no difference in the appearance of their housemaid now and how she looked like before she took a bus bound for her hometown in Catanduanes province in May.

Reynald Marzan, husband of coaccused Ana Liza Marzan, likewise told  a Quezon City court yesterday  that from June 2009 until she returned to her  home on May 22 this year,  their housemaid Bonita Baran never had a day off from work.

This  was the testimony  of one of the accused in a  case of serious illegal detention filed against them by  Baran, who claimed she had been locked up and maltreated by the couple  for several years  until she  became almost blind.

During the cross examination of  Marzan  in the couple’s petition for bail, Assistant City Prosecutor Irene Resureccion asked the accused to describe Baran’s physical features when he  brought her to Cubao in Quezon City to catch a bus headed to  Catanduanes.

“Halos hitsura niya ngayon (Almost the way she looks now),” Marzan said motioning to Baran who sat a few feet across him from the witness stand.

He claimed that Baran already bore scars on her face when she started working for them at 75 Las Villas del Cielo, Project 6 in February 2007.

But he added that the wounds  could have been “self-inflicted.”

Marzan recalled that in 2007 Baran had looked younger and “looked like a Chinese.”

Asked by Resureccion to look closely at Baran, he noted, “She looks more like a Chinese now, with those eyes. She had the  habit of rubbing her eyes. One of my children noticed this and asked her why her eyes were reddish.”

He also claimed that he had not noticed that Baran had impaired vision, adding that as far as he knew, the housemaid could see.

The accused however recalled noticing Baran constantly bumping into things and was unable to pick up items when she was asked to do so.