RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Philippine ambassador to Brazil was dismissed from her diplomatic career for beating a domestic worker for months at the official residence in Brasilia.
Marichu Mauro had been summoned to Manila late last year after GloboNews television network broadcast CCTV footage showing her abusing her housemaid, also a Filipino, over a period of eight months.
The diplomat was fired from the Foreign Ministry, President Rodrigo Duterte announced on television.
“There are rules to follow. If you disobey them, you take a risk. If things don’t go well, I will not pardon you,” the head of state warned.
Mauro, who did not respond to a request for an interview by AFP news agency, will lose her pension rights and will not be allowed to work in public service again.
The CCTV footage, recorded between March and October 2020, was used to support a denunciation lodged by the Philippine government against the diplomat, who was appointed ambassador to Brazil in 2018. GloboNews reported that the woman worked at the ambassador’s official residence in Brasília.
Millions of Filipinos work abroad as domestic workers. The money they send to their families in the archipelago represents an important part of the Philippine GDP. But some of these workers do so in difficult, even dangerous conditions. Cases of physical or psychological abuse are common.
Source: Infobae