By The
SUN
 |
| Malarulat in a photo she posted of her taking part in a beauty contest |
Video sharing, leaking of private information,
harassment and spreading gossip and intrigue about her former employers were
among the prohibited acts that a Filipina domestic worker was told to stop
doing, in an unusual judgment rendered at the District Court on September 22.
Merly Q. Malarulat was in court when Judge Harold
Leung granted the injunction sought against her by her former employer, Raymond
Manalo, and ordered her to pay the costs of the proceedings.
The injunction prohibits Malarulat disclosing any
personal details about Manalo’s family,
including their social media accounts, and sharing any videos she took of them,
particularly a sensitive one that she claimed to have taken of the plaintiff’s
eight-year-old daughter.
The FDH was also ordered to stop intimidating,
harassing, or interfering with the private affairs of the plaintiff’s family
and their current domestic helper – and not to come within 100 meters in their
presence.
She is also told not to assist or procure the help of
others in doing all the acts that she is prevented from doing.
Further, Malarulat was told to take all steps
necessary to retrieve from anyone any document or material she had shared,
which infringes on the family’s privacy.
Contacted by The SUN, Malarulat responded with just “Aq (ako) natalo” (I lost), followed by
some laughing emoticons.
But for Manalo, a chef, the court’s decision was a
lifesaver, as it put an end to more than a year of distress and uncertainty for
his entire family of five caused by Malarulat’s relentless effort to spread
lies and intrigue against them.
He said the lies were so vicious that fellow Filipinos in the
Kornhill estate where they live have been hounding his family, particularly his
banker-wife whom they have accused within earshot of being mentally ill and
evil.
The distress caused by the toxic gossip reached a new
level when a new helper they hired to replace Malarulat called Allaina quit
after working for only eight months for them.
Manalo said Allaina told them she was “mentally
tortured and confused” by the constant warnings she received from fellow
helpers in Kornhill about how evil and unstable her employers were.
Giving in to the advice of her fellow helpers, Allaina
contacted Malarulat who proceeded to tell her through text messages about a sensitive
video she took of the Manalo’s youngest child, which she threatened to use in
case the couple decided to take action against her.
Malarulat also offered to get Allaina a new employer
so she would leave the Manalos. In the end, however, Allaina decided to just go
home after serving notice of termination.
According to the court documents, Malarulat arrived in
Hong Kong on May 6, 2022, about a year and a half after the Manalos, who had
just arrived here at the time, started working on her papers to come and join
them.
She spent a week in quarantine before joining the family on May 12 of
that year.
The strict travel restrictions at the time delayed her
arrival and the Manalos had to shell out money each time she had to renew her
visa, and later, to pay for her quarantine.
Manalo’s wife was keen to hire her despite the long
delay because Malarulat was the godmother of their second child, and they were
neighbors and good friends back in San Jose del Monte in Bulacan.
The employer
also knew that Malarulat had previously worked in Hong Kong for three years and
should already know her way around.
Text conversations between the two women also showed
Malarulat had begged the couple to hire her after they relocated to Hong Kong,
saying she needed help sending her two children to college.
But less than a month after she started working for
the Manalos or on June 1, 2022, Malarulat asked to be released from her
contract, saying she felt like she was not trusted by the employers to take
care of their youngest child, citing the CCTV installed in their house as reason.
She also complained about not being given her own room.
‘My wife and I were very clueless, it was very obvious
that she wanted to do job-hopping. We (were) not expecting this because she
really assured us that she will take care of my family, making promises so we
would wait for her to come,” Manalo said in a written statement to the court.
When the employers resisted, Malarulat informed them
that she was terminating their contract on June 20, 2022, two days after
insisting on staying in a boarding house. She returned to the employers’ flat
on that day, then left again. When she returned that night, an angry
confrontation ensued and the employers called the police.
Shortly after midnight the next day, the two sides
signed an agreement where Malarulat agreed not to post the videos she took
of the couple that night on social media, saying she merely filmed them to protect herself.
She also agreed to move to a boarding house paid for by the couple, who decided
they no longer felt safe in her presence.
Their contract was officially terminated on June 30,
2022, and the Manalos paid what they thought was due the helper, including a
month’s salary in lieu of notice and an air ticket for her flight home.
However, Malarulat decided
to stay on and move to another employer.
Manalo said the case dragged on longer than expected because
Malarulat gave the court two fake addresses, the last one being that for the
Mission for Migrant Workers which, it turned out, did not have her in their
list of clients.
But each time she appeared in court Malarulat would
complain that she did not get any notices and thus was unable to file
counter-affidavits.
The run-around stopped last September 22 when the
judge told her he did not believe her excuses, and rendered judgment against
her.
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