By Vir B. Lumicao
A Filipina domestic worker was sentenced to two months in
jail in
Julyn E. Almario, 35, had pleaded not guilty to the
accusation, saying that the child sustained the injuries accidentally in April.
Almario was the fourth Filipina to be jailed for assaulting their
wards in just a month. The cases have prompted Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre to
say that he will soon organize seminars on child care for Filipino domestic
workers.
On July 18, Carmela Sotto was jailed six months by a
magistrate in Eastern Court
after being caught on CCTV slapping her employer’s 18-month-old baby twice on
June 3.
Three days later, a third OFW, Rochelle L. Dreck was locked
up by the same Eastern Court
magistrate for two and a half months for assaulting the four-year-old son of
jailed Hong Kong business magnate Carson
Yueng.
In the latest case, Almario said she did not intend to harm
the child, and that she was in good terms with her employers, whom she had
served for the past four years.
But in a video interview, the boy said the maid had deliberately
pressed the hot part of the dryer against his buttocks while drying his hair
after a shower, scalding his skin.
The defendant denied this, saying that the boy had climbed
atop the toilet bowl and slipped while she was drying his hair in the bathroom.
The child reportedly fell on her stomach but the Filipina said she did not see
the dryer come into contact with any part of the boy’s body.
The boy’s mother gave evidence that when she heard the
commotion in the bathroom, she knocked on the door and the helper told her they
slipped on the floor and the boy must have come into contact with the dryer’s
nozzle, causing redness on his buttocks.
The parents did not immediately report the incident to the
police thinking that it was an accident and the redness was not serious. But after
three days, when injuries from the scalding appeared, they called the police
and the maid was arrested.
In finding Almario guilty, Magistrate June Cheung said the
toddler’s statements were consistent with how he sustained his injury. Even if
there were some slight differences in what the boy told his parents and what he
said in the video interview, these were immaterial to the case as the point was
to show he sustained the injuries.
On the other hand, Cheung said the maid’s evidence was
contradictory, indicating she was not telling the truth.
The defense lawyer pleaded for leniency, possibly by way of
a suspended sentence, saying Almario, who was separated from her husband and
had worked in Hong Kong as a helper for seven
years, had a 15-year-old daughter and her parents to support. The lawyer also said the Filipina had a clear record and had
good relations with her employers..
But Cheung said a custodial sentence was necessary because
the case was serious.
