Maid's family settles abuse case for P.15 million

MANILA, Philippines - Police said yesterday the family of an 18-year-old maid who was rescued from five years of alleged illegal detention in the house of businessman Lucio Tan’s estranged brother has settled the case.

“Charges were never filed against the employer following the settlement,” Chief Inspector Felicima Buco, head of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Women’s Desk, told The STAR in an interview.

According to Buco, the settlement involved the payment of P150,000 to Mary Jane Sollano’s family for unpaid salaries.

PO3 Marilou Salanap, an investigator from the QCPD-Station 1, confirmed that a settlement has indeed been signed on Monday at the village hall, following Sollano’s rescue from the house of Mariano Tan in Barangay Sto. Domingo.

According to Salanap, the only thing that Sollano’s family did at the police station after rescue was to have the incident recorded in the police blotter.

“I advised them to come back so we could have the girl undergo a medical check-up and also so we could still press charges if they wanted to,” Salanap said.

According to Salanap, Sollano’s family has yet to come back as of yesterday afternoon.

Sollano claimed she suffered physical, emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of Tan’s wife and two children and that she had been imprisoned in the residence for five years.

Her parents found out about her whereabouts through a fellow maid who said she had escaped from the Tan household. Her father then sought the help of friends, who eventually brought them to the Commission on Human Rights. – Reinir Padua