Filipina journalist wins case vs Palau publisher

DAVAO CITY — The Supreme Court of the Micronesian nation of Palau found a local newspaper publisher guilty of breach of contract in a case filed by a Filipina journalist in 2004.

The Palauan high tribunal ordered MYU Publications and Moses Uludong, publisher of Tia Belau, to pay Mia Nebre $10,536.85 in damages.

However, it denied Nebre’s separate claims of sexual harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress, citing "failure of proof."

The tribunal also dismissed Uludong’s counter-claim of defamation against Nebre. The Palauan publisher had demanded $50,000 in damages from Nebre for allegedly spreading the rumor that he had dated her.

Nebre worked for Tia Belau, a weekly newspaper, in 2003 but resigned the following year after Uludong changed all the conditions in her contract.

In a two-page resolution, Associate Justice Kathleen Salii ordered Uludong to pay Nebre $4,000 for lost wages, $1,600 for room and board, $4,466 for food allowance, $279.85 for salaries withheld for "no work, no pay" on Fridays and Saturdays in 2004, and $192 for unauthorized deductions for her social security card, work permit and medical examination fee.

"Nebre’s case would serve as a precedent for other labor cases. It would serve as basis for future labor cases of our Filipino workers here in Palau," Philippine Ambassador to Palau Ramoncito Mariño told The STAR in a phone interview.

Filipino workers actually comprise one-fourth of Palau’s total population of 20,000.

When he assumed as ambassador to Palau last February, Mariño said the Philippine Embassy was able to extend little assistance to Nebre. She herself acknowledged this in a letter to The STAR.

"My employer changed all the conditions in my contract and imposed illegal deductions, long hours of work, no holiday pay, no-work, no-pay, and many others," Nebre earlier said in a letter to The STAR.

She said these conditions forced her to file the case against Uludong in 2004.

According to Nebre, her original contract provided that she would be paid $500 a month and would work for eight hours a day.

But she said Uludong changed her contract shortly after her arrival in Palau in 2003.

"I was subjected to more abuses until I found help from an American lawyer who enabled me to make it to the court," she said.

Despite alleged threats to her life and being in a foreign country, Nebre decided to stay in Palau to monitor the progress of her case.

She returned to the Philippines only last April with her case still unresolved and with only $95 in her pocket which she had borrowed from a friend in Palau.

"I was jobless for more than a year and suffered emotionally, physically, mentally and financially. But I decided to stay. I waited until I made it to the court. I went home on April 29 without hearing the decision of the court," she said.