Housemaid sues Chinese employer, two others for illegal detention

A 44-year-old Malabon City housemaid has filed a complaint against her former Chinese employer and two others who were allegedly responsible for her 11-day detention at the police station over a crime which she did not commit.

In tears, Angie Cardona, of Sunflower Street, Barangay Potrero, told case officer SPO3 Ferdinand Espiritu that she could not just forget what Felisa Sy-Keh, 56, businesswoman, of Circumferential Road, Araneta Avenue, also in the same village, did to her which resulted in her incarceration at the local police.

Cardona has also included in her complaint an alleged quack doctor (magtatawas) named only as Boy Valero and Sy-Keh’s brother-in-law, one Jessie Que, who, according to her, was a former police officer.

Cardona told Espiritu that it was Valero and Que who allegedly forcibly brought her on Dec. 23, 2010 to the police station where she was detained. She said she could not object because she did not know what to do at the time she was already hauled off to jail against her will.

Her ordeal started when she and another housemaid, Rochelle Gullas, were called by Sy-Keh and were ordered to look for her missing pieces of jewelry. When they could not find them as they both denied stealing it as they were accused by her Chinese employer, the latter then called Valero.

By using a candle which he melted on a heated spoon before splattering it onto a tub half-filled with water, Valero pointed at Cardona and told her in front of Sy-Keh, that she was the one who stole her employer’s jewelry.

As she denied the accusation, Que arrived and allegedly dragged her to her employer’s car and brought her to the police station where they managed to have her detained despite her pleading since she insisted she had nothing to do with the missing items, if any.

After 11 days in detention, she was able to get out with the help of a lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office that prompted the City Prosecutor’s Office to release her for lack of evidence.

Determined to get even with them, Cardona said she would pursue the filing of charges against the three, particularly her former Chinese employer who allegedly refused to give to her all her personal belongings, including identification cards for her Social Security Service, Pag-IBIG and birth certificate of her child, among others.

She told police that she first tried to get them back with the help of village watchmen and a policewoman but her former employer ignored them. She said she will pursue the case to give them a hard lesson they could not forget.  –Arlie O. Calalo, Daily Tribune