Housemaid charges Lucio Tan’s brother with illegal detention

THE younger brother of business tycoon Lucio Tan, businessman Mariano Tanenglian, is facing charges for alleged illegal detention and maltreatment of Mary Jane Sollano, 18, housemaid.

Sollano, a native of Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur, was rescued Monday by combined elements of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the Quezon City police from the Tanenglian residence at No. 30 Biak na Bato Street, Santo Domingo, Quezon City.

In a statement, lawyer Melanie Trinidad, private counsel of the maid’s father, said Sollano would execute her sworn statement and complaint before police authorities after undergoing a battery of physical, emotional and psychological tests.

The lawyer said that even if Sollano, her father and brothers were made to sign a waiver by Tanenglian’s lawyer as a condition for her release, the Sollano family are still bent on filing charges to seek justice for the illegal detention and maltreatment the maid suffered.

Sollano, who was employed while still in her early teens at the Tanenglian household, allegedly suffered five years of physical, emotional and psychological abuse in the hands of Ta-nenglian’s wife, Aleta, and their two children.

According to the lawyer, Solano was not allowed to leave the residence nor communicate with relatives and was often left with nothing to eat.

 “She didn’t even know what date it was,” the lawyer claimed.

Sollano’s parents—fearing she was dead—only learned of their daughter’s whereabouts from a fellow maid, Aljane Bacanto, who escaped the Tanenglian house recently.

The father then sought the help of province mates and private lawyers who then brought them to the CHR to seek assistance from authorities. The Tanenglians could not be reached for comment. — William B. Depasupil, Manila Times