AJLLP SOLIDLY STANDS WITH MARICHU BAOANAN AND DAMAYAN ON HER CASE VS LAURO BAJA

AJLLP SOLIDLY STANDS WITH MARICHU BAOANAN AND DAMAYAN ON HER CASE VS LAURO BAJA Jr. ET AL

San Francisco-- The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) expresses militant solidarity and support to compatriot Marichu S. Baonan and the Damayan Migrant Workers Association based in New York on the case filed by Ms. Baonan against former United Nations Ambassador Lauro Baja, Jr., Norma Castro Baja, his daughter Maria Elizabeth Baja Facundo and the Baja-owned Labaire International Travel Inc;

The case filed last June 24 exposes the hypocrisy of the US-Arroyo regime and its policies and its bureaucracy in its failure to protect Filipino workers abroad. The case highlights the sad fact that its instrumentalities who are supposed to safeguard their rights are the ones who oppresses them and take advantage of them like in the case of Marichu Baoanan from New York..

It is also a hard fact to note that Baja Jr, a holdover from the US-Marcos regime owned the travel agency and like other DFA and Philippine government officials and oppresses and exploit their country mates with impunity.

The AJLPP expresses contempt over the highhandedness of Baja who said that “in this case, he is the victim, not Marichu Baoanan”

How can Baja say that he is the victim when Baoanan who was recruited as a nurse was made to work as a maid. Baonan also said she was made to work 18 hours daily, seven days a week, in the Baja household and was paid only a total of $100 for three months of work and suffered abuse from the Baja family.

The AJLPP is aware that the Baonan case is not isolated like what Baja or the US –Arroyo regime potrays. There are still many cases out there here in the United States and all over the world.

As the US-based Mariposa Alliance and GABRIELA Network USA, pointed out :"There have been innumerable stories of Filipinas seeking sanctuary from their brutal employers at consulates and embassies only to be returned to the same employers; of Filipinas funneled into the sex trade by embassy and consular personnel; of Filipinas traded as domestic workers by embassy and consular personnel to their relatives and friends as favors; of Filipinas coerced into paid-for marriages and sex work to enable embassy and consular personnel to make enormous profits".

The AJLPP and all its organizations expresses wholehearted support and will extend all necessary means and resources to help Marichu Baoanan and all compatriots to seek justice and equality in the United Sates and will fight systemic racism everywhere it rears its ugly head.

Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP)

July 10, 2008