Battered maid to sue bosses

For five years, Mary Jane Sollano, 18, housemaid of Mariano Tanenglian, was kept isolated from the warm sun and fresh air by her employer’s wife, Aleta, and their two children. She was reportedly trapped inside her bosses’ house and left to starve like a miserable, wound-infested rat.

Sollano was rescued last Monday by combined elements of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Quezon City police. The victim will pursue charges against her former employers for alleged illegal detention and abuses she suffered in the last five years.

Sollano, a native of Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur, is still recuperating from the trauma following her rescue from the Tanenglian residence at No. 30 Biak na Bato St., Sto. Domingo, Quezon City. She is set to undergo a battery of physical, emotional and psychological tests.

In a statement, Melanie Trinidad, legal counsel of the maid’s father, said Sollano will execute her sworn statement and complaint before police authorities.

Despite the waiver that Sollano, her father and her brothers were told to sign by Tanenglian’s lawyer as a condition for her release, the Sollanos are bent on filing charges to seek justice or the illegal detention and maltreatment she 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 Tanenglian’s wife, Aleta, and their two children.

The maid claimed that she was not allowed to leave the residence nor communicate with relatives and was often left with nothing to eat. She didn’t even now what date it was, the lawyer said.

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

The father then sought the help of provincemates and private lawyers, who then brought them to the CHR to seek assistance from the authorities.
Sollano and her parents had a tearful reunion after five years without contact, Trinidad said.

Source:
People’s Tonight
August 12, 2009