‘Households hiring new help should make background check’

MANILA, Philippines—Police Thursday warned people to be careful of who they hire as household help, as they launched a hunt for a woman who robbed her employers over the weekend in Las Piñas City.

Dr. Ma. Cielo Smith, of Sydney Street, 4S Subdivision in Las Piñas, said their newly hired housemaid, who identified herself as Maria Pelayo Cabato, 39, of Balic-Balic, Sampaloc, Manila, took with her over P200,000 worth of valuables, including a laptop and assorted pieces of jewelry last March 6.

Smith said she and her family left their house around 3 p.m. that day and returned four hours later only to find Cabato as well as their valuables missing.

The family immediately reported the incident to the police and filed a complaint against Cabato.

Smith said they employed Cabato last March 1 through the agency LRM Manpower Services.

“She (Cabato) was supposedly a replacement of the first maid we hired who did not return on time from her day-off. (Cabato) had all the required documents and the agency claimed she had been thoroughly investigated,” Smith said.

But according to their own investigation, documents, including clearance from a barangay and the National Bureau of Investigation presented by the suspect turned out to be fake.

“So it’s also highly possible that she was only using an alias and that she was part of a syndicate. We also learned that there were others victims of the same modus,” Smith said, adding that they also intend to file a complaint against the employment agency.

“When people are paying agencies to provide legal qualified personnel it is their responsibility to ensure that the people [being referred] have been checked out and investigated as stated in their contract,” added Smith’s American husband, William.

Sought for comment, agency owner Cecilia Marinas admitted that when they tried to conduct a background check on Cabato, they did not find the address which the latter had stipulated in the documents she had presented.

“But the Smiths said they were in a hurry and badly needed a maid. It was also their fault because the maid had been with them only for a week and yet they left her alone in their house. Besides, the contract also said they were also supposed to do their own investigation if the new hire has already been taken in their household,” Marinas told the Philippine Daily Inquirer over the phone.

She added that her agency has also been helping the Smiths in locating the whereabouts of the suspect.