Two show business talents, both minors, on Friday filed child abuse charges against their manager, Annabelle Rama, for allegedly making them work beyond 40 hours a week, thus interfering with their studies.
Nadine Montenegro Pla filed the four-page complaint with the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office on behalf of her two daughters, aged 15 and 17.
In her complaint, Pla described Rama as a long-time family friend and manager who signed a five-year contract with Pla’s two daughters for the two girls to appear on television.
Pla, a former celebrity herself, also filed a complaint for child abuse and oral defamation against Rama for allegedly spreading nasty rumors about her two daughters.
In her affidavit, Pla said she had initially opposed her daughters’ bid to join show biz, but eventually signed management contracts with Rama on behalf of her children.
The original agreement was only for three years, but both management contracts were for five years.
Pla alleged that Rama made her children work for more than 40 hours each week, sometimes even interfering with her daughters’ schooling.
Under Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Act, a child is not allowed to work for more than 40 hours a week. A memorandum of the Department of Labor and Employment also provides that an employer cannot make a child work during school hours.
“As my children’s manager, Rama failed to protect the interests of my children by making them work even during school hours to the detriment of their grades, giving them the impression that the same was required by the network and that they either ‘take it or leave it,’” Pla said in her affidavit.
Pla also alleged that Rama made her two daughters wear “mature and sexually suggestive clothes” and attend social events that exposed her kids “to circumstances that were prejudicial to their morals.”
In a separate joint affidavit, the two daughters recalled times when they were made to shoot from 6 a.m. to 4 a.m. the following day for a TV5 show.
The “verbal and emotional” abuse soon reached the point that Pla wanted to terminate her daughters’ contract with Rama.
“I even learned that when she was alone with my children, Rama would convince my children to choose work over their education, giving them the impression that they need to give up their education to be able to be successful in their career,” Pla said.
Pla also alleged that Rama circulated nasty rumors about the two girls.
The mother and her two daughters alleged that the rumors were “apparently with the intention of damaging our reputation so as to destroy the network’s interest in us.”
The Inquirer was unable to reach Rama for comment.