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| Eastern Court where Labii was sentenced |
By Vir B. Lumicao
A Filipina who was convicted of hitting her 10-year-old
female ward for throwing a tantrum was sentenced to 28 days in jail at Eastern Court on
Aug 11.
Emerolyne M. Labii was in tears as Magistrate Cheng Lim-chi
read his verdict at the conclusion of a three-day trial in which the court heard
video-recorded evidence from the
victim, the child’s grandmother, two police officers and the
maid herself.
The magistrate said he found the child’s statement clear and
reliable despite her age. In contrast, he said Labii was not
credible.
“The girl was only 10 years old, she was just a child when
you assaulted her,” Cheng said, as he rejected the defense counsel’s plea for a
suspended sentence. He said he adopted 28 days as a starting point for
sentencing and imposed that jail term fully.
The magistrate acknowledged that the child suffered no
permanent injuries, and had reached out to Labii after the incident to show that
she still cared for the maid who looked after her for three years.
Two elderly members of Church of Jesus Christ of the
Latter-Day Saints were in court to show support for Labii, and testify to her
good character. A letter from one said Labii spent practically all her Sundays
off doing volunteer work for the church.
Also in court was Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre, who said
after the verdict and sentencing that he may organize seminars on child care
for Filipino domestic workers so they could avoid getting into a situation like
Labii’s.
The case arose from an incident on March 6 this year when
Labii admitted that she hit the girl, identified only as “X”, because she threw
a tantrum after her grandmother resisted her plea not to leave the house.
In a video-recorded interview, the victim said the maid
grabbed her shoulders with both hands and shook her continuously before hitting her on the
back. The girl also said the maid hit her on the back and tummy and banged her head on
the floor.
A medical report showed the girl suffered a bump on her head
and marks on her stomach and back.
Labii, giving evidence, admitted she held the girl by the
shoulders and pushed her, then slapped her twice on the back because she shouted at her as
she was putting the child’s swimsuit in her bag.
“That attitude so upset me that I grabbed her shoulders,
pushed her just once and when she turned her back to me, I slapped her twice on her back,”
Labii said from the witness stand in response to the defense lawyer’s question.
The helper said the victim was naughty and prone to throwing
tantrums. “I wanted to stop her bad attitude,” Labii said. But she said she did not want
to hurt the girl whom she loved, and was sorry she lost control of herself that
afternoon.
But the helper denied banging the victim’s head on the floor,
and suggested the girl acquired the bump when she was rolling on the floor
during her tantrum. She said the girl was good at telling lies even to her
parents.
Before the helper gave evidence, two police officers took
turns on the witness stand.
The first officer who responded to the call about the
assault said he did not write down the child’s statements but noted them and wrote
his report afterwards. He said the victim had a mild swelling on the top of her
head but did not check for other injuries “because she was a girl”.
The second officer who was ordered to investigate the case
the following morning, said
he went to Eastern
Hospital
In reaching his verdict, the magistrate said the helper had
admitted slapping the victim, notwithstanding her claim that she used the wrong word “hit”
instead of “slap” in her cautioned statement.
He added that he had doubts in the maid’s version of the
incident, while in contrast, the child’s evidence was clear and reliable. He also said that
the Filipina had shown no remorse for what she did.
