I THOUGHT about writing this piece for the longest time. Many times,
I procrastinated and prayed that it would just go away like a bad
dream. But it did not. After countless nights spent thinking about
the pros and cons, I have decided to share my life and fate to serve
as a revelation of sort so that people may know about things that
we think do not really occur in our society—until they happen
to us.
This is my true story.
I am a thirty-one-year-old single mother and I have been jobless
for more than ten months now. I resigned with a heavy heart (read:
layman's term for forced resignation or constructive dismissal in
legal parlance) from my employment of almost ten years, a victim of
intrigues and machinations by my balding forty-something Chinese-Filipino
employer whom we will refer to here as the Ba(l)d Man or BM for short.
The story neither ended nor began when I filed my resignation one
afternoon in February 2002.
It all began a long time ago. The first year of my employment as
a lowly sales representative of the Jewelry Store and Pawnshop along
Libertad Street, Pasay City, which was named after that sinner-saint
who wiped the face of Jesus Christ with a hankie on His way to Calvary.
My own Calvary started when after breaking all the sales records
of the said company, the BM took notice of me. He started to shower
me with gifts (e.g., perfumes, bags, make-up kits and other girlie
stuff) purchased during his constant travels abroad in the guise of
bonuses for my exceptional performance and work ethic; to quote him:
"Sa mga naitulong mo sa negosyo ko."
I was too naive then to ever suspect of anything sinister about
his actions; having just left my rustic town in faraway Bicol, where
I had stayed all my life. I was a licensed elementary school teacher
then waiting for my appointment, when an old friend and neighbor who
came home for a brief vacation convinced me to try my luck in Manila
as an employee of the pawnshop where she was working. To make the
long story short, I made the trip back with her and lived as a stay-in
worker in the BM's place in Makati.
The first month of my employment went smoothly. I was very and elated
with all the benefits and bonuses that I received from the BM, thinking
they were really rewards for my hard work in the company.
One day, I received a phone call from the BM telling me to meet him
after office hours at Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Makati Cinema Square
to pick up some laser discs that he rented for his children. When
I arrived at the said place, he told me to bring the laser discs to
his Pajero in the parking lot. He followed me and asked me if I were
going somewhere and I answered no. He told me to accompany him for
a joy ride as he drove his car all the way to a resort in Laguna and
back.
It was an omen of things to come. For in another instance, he told
me to accompany him for the test drive of his newly bought Mercedes
Benz and again he drove all the way to Laguna where he rented a room
with a pool inside and casually asked me to join him in the pool.
I refused by lying that I was having my monthly period.
Then on another occasion, he asked me again to accompany him to buy
some things for his children. So as not to embarrass him in front
of my colleagues, I relented. We boarded his Pajero and again drove
off to the same resort in Laguna wherein he again rented a room with
a swimming pool inside. He told me that he brought bathing suits for
me and asked me to try it on and join him in the pool. I refused.
He held my hand and tried to coax me into massaging him but still
I refused. He then ordered a bottle of ice-cold San Miguel Beer and
drank straight from the bottle as he opened his clutch bag and pulled
out a hand gun whom he said is a Glock, "the same one used by
Ramon Tulfo of the Inquirer,"and proceeded to lecture me about
the guns in his arsenal. I decided to engage him in a conversation,
pretending that I was interested in what he was saying. After a while,
I urged him to go back to Manila because it was getting late.
As we were traversing the South Super Highway, he asked me personal
questions including my supposed stand on virginity as he swerved the
car to the right and drove into an old and dilapidated motel along
F.B. Harrison name Blue Marlin. He tried to force himself on me but
this time I was so adamant that he left me in the motel. I decided
to pass the night in that God-forsaken place and left at the first
crack of dawn and went back to their house in Magallanes Village.
He only stopped pestering me when his wife came back from the United
States.
I soon left that place and lived on my own in a boarding house in
Makati. I attended a birthday party of an old friend two months later
and found my former high school sweetheart in the said gathering.
We reconciled and events happened so fast and soon found myself pregnant
with his child. My boyfriend had other things on his mind then and
left for an overseas assignment, leaving me to fend for myself until
I gave birth to my son in Bicol. Just three weeks after giving birth,
I was summoned by the BM and told to report for work even if I was
entitled to a two-month maternity leave because I gave birth by caesarian
operation. Afraid that I would lose my job especially now that I had
a son to feed, I returned to the pawnshop with a heavy heart and left
my son in the care of my younger sister.
Then my nightmare began.
A week after my return, I was demoted to the lowest position in the
pawnshop by the BM and my salary was halved without any explanation
whatsoever. I took it with a grain of salt including all the humiliation
that came with it because I had nowhere to go. For six months, I worked
as a cashier receiving less than 5,000 pesos a month—hardly
enough to support the needs of my baby in the province as well as
the monthly rent. I decided to supplement my income by selling brassieres
and other underwear to my co-workers sourced from Divisoria on my
days off.
The company was expanding and they needed people who know the ins
and outs of the complex pawnshop business to manage the day-to-day
operations of the new branches that were now sprouting like mushrooms
in various places in Metro Manila. Rather than hire and train new
faces, the management decided to put in persons who already knew the
business by heart. I was one of the lucky ones who were promoted.
Things went on smoothly from then on until BM learned that I had reconciled
with the father of my son and was in the process of bringing our son
to Manila so that we can be reunited and live as one family. Then
it happened.
One day in January 2002, the BM summoned all the branch managers
and other trusted employees to his house in Makati. He told us that
there was an anonymous "texter" spreading nasty text messages
about his wife. These supposedly nasty rumors were never told to us;
he only told us they were "masama." Then the BM told us
that he would conduct a thorough investigation to unmask the culprit.
For one reason to another, he zeroed in on me and accused me of having
a hand in the process. I was flabbergasted and categorically denied
my involvement in the said caper because I not only knew that I was
innocent but also found the said accusations preposterous. My pleas
fell on deaf ears. The next day, I was told that I was being transferred
to another branch and demoted to a lower position with a lower salary.
It was deja vu. Rather than undergo another humiliating process, I
was constrained to resign.
We returned to Bicol and consulted a pro bono lawyer regarding my
case. The BM got wind of my plans, sent men into our place, and tried
to bully us into not proceeding with it; he warned us that he would
use all his power and resources against us. This did not deter us
and instead strengthened our resolve to fight for my rights. I filed
a case of constructive dismissal against my employer at the National
Labor Relations Commission. Two months after I filed the labor case,
an old friend still employed in the pawnshop called me up and told
me about the rumors floating that I have a warrant of arrest issued
by the Pasay Regional Trial Court for qualified theft. I told my lawyer
about it and decided to verify if the rumors were accurate and got
the surprise of our lives when we found that indeed there was already
a warrant of arrest for me issued by the court in spite of the fact
that I did not receive a single summon from the investigating prosecutor!
Worse, the fiscal refused to give my lawyers copies of the charge
sheet against me. We finally obtained our copy of the complaint affidavit
when I posted bail. My lawyers immediately filed a motion to reopen
the preliminary investigation at the RTC on the ground that due process
was denied me because I was not given the chance to face my accuser
and refute their accusations. The fiscal swallowed completely the
complaint of my employer's even without presenting any evidence to
support their claims. The presiding judge denied the motion by citing
a lot of legal gobbledygook that did not make any sense to me. In
one of the hearings, the young and brash Atenean lawyer, an associate
of my employer's lead counsel bragged that we had already lost our
labor case. I called up the office of the Labor Arbiter and asked
about the decision. They assured me that there had been none yet.
A week after that arrogant lawyer talked to us, the decision was finally
out and simply put I lost the case. It did not surprise me anymore,
though since I have been expecting the worst.
In his ruling, the labor arbiter decided against me by stating that
there was no employer-employee relationship between my employer and
myself and that the sexual harassment charge was a lie because had
it been true it would not have taken the complainant two months after
she resigned to file the labor case. What kind of logic is that if
you ask me? The arbiter had the nerve to rule that I lied when in
fact, the BM attended not a single hearing, and he never asked me
any "clarificatory" questions about the said matter. The
labor case is on appeal with the commission while I am scheduled to
be arraigned this coming February on trumped-up charges in retaliation
for having filed the labor case, in the process of which I earned
the BM's ire. "Uubusan kita ng gasolina at magsisisi ka dahil
bumangga ka sa pader," he said.
Truly, the hand of evil, aided by the best and twisted minds of lawyers
in connivance with their hoodlum contacts in the judiciary that dirty
money can buy is working against me. To say that I am losing faith
in our country's justice system is an understatement but I am still
willing to give it a chance to show that in this country she is not
blind. I am hoping that I will have an impartial judge to hear my
case although that is a very remote possibility now because the presiding
judge just denied my motion to produce the original document of my
employee's record—which, I am positive, has been tampered with
to facilitate the absurd charges against me—by citing that it
is against the law of self-incrimination! He turned a blind eye on
the fact that it was my accuser who used that document as evidence.
Now the judge is telling me that anybody can use a tampered document
as evidence in court to prosecute somebody and the accused will not
be able to contest the said evidence because it will be in violation
of the law against self-incrimination of the accuser!
Whoa, no wonder the people's perception of our judicial system is
that it is rotten and our country is really going to the dogs! Whatever
happened to the dictum that the legal profession is a noble profession?
Still, I believe that the truth will set me free if only I could have
a fair trial. I am keeping my fingers crossed for I do not want to
be in a situation where I will be constrained to seek redress in the
People's Court of the New People's Army—where I will have a
fair chance of having an impartial trial and justice is served without
fear or favor.
I will cross the bridge when I get there.
---------------
Bagong Magdalena usually travels 12 hours by bus to attend the hearing
in Manila. She attends to her small sari-sari store while waiting
for her case to be resolved.
