VF’s social workers discovered Selma in a dark detention cell at the Manila North Harbor, where she had been languishing for three months. Her employer had filed a case of theft against her. Selma was not given any legal representation as required by law. She reported thinking that she was condemned to rot in detention with no hope of release in the foreseeable future.

Selma’s ordeal started when an acquaintance introduced her to Sally, a recruiter who was going around the provinces in Mindanao looking for potential domestic workers for Manila. Sally paid Selma a visit and enticed her to come to Manila and work for a middle-class family. Selma agreed to take her offer. After six months of unpaid work, however, Selma contacted Sally again to request help in finding another job.

Sally referred Selma to another employer. For her next job, Selma not only served as a domestic worker but also as part-time cook and attendant in her employer’s carinderia (small eatery-cum-videoke bar).

Much to Selma’s dismay, however, her new employer too failed to pay her for three long years. In addition, she suffered daily beatings for every mistake that she made. At night, when male customers went to the bar to unwind and drink beer, her employer would force her and Tanya, her fellow domestic worker, to sit with and entertain them. “I didn’t want to share a table with any of our customers, but each time I’d refuse my employer would slap and hurt me. I couldn’t stand it but she threatened not to feed us anymore if we didn’t obey her,” Selma said in Filipino.

To make matters worse, her employer pushed her to cohabit with one of her co-workers, a houseboy who was wooing her. A few months later, Selma became pregnant. Upon discovering this, her employer assigned her strenuous tasks, made her carry heavy objects, and forced her to drink a bitter concoction, which induced a miscarriage. Selma repeatedly begged her employer to let her go so that she could find better opportunities, but her employer remained stonehearted.

Her employer also insisted that Selma had to pay for the transportation expenses she incurred when she first came to Manila. Desperate, Selma finally planned to escape together with Tanya.
But their employer learned about their plan and pre-empted it by accusing them of stealing P15,000. Selma and Tanya were then taken to prison at a nearby police station. No lawyer came to represent them.

Selma and Tanya languished in jail for three months. When Visayan Forum learned about their plight, its social workers asked the police to release the two girls to VF’s custody for the duration of the case hearings.

The police, however, said that they were in the process of transferring the young women to the City Jail, so they could not release them. When their employer found out about the social workers’ request, she decided to offer the young women a second chance, saying that she would drop the charges if they would work for her again.

But Selma and Tanya rejected the offer. “I’d rather suffer in jail than return to the house of my cruel employer. At least no one will beat us up in prison and she can’t hurt us here,” Selma said. They spent the next four months awaiting trial. Afterwards, the case was dismissed due to lack of evidence.

After their release, Selma filed a case against her employer for violating RA 7610, the Anti-Child Abuse Law. After filing the case, she told VF’s social workers that she wanted to go home to her province.

The social workers understood her initial desire for repatriation. But since the hearings of the case required her presence in Manila, they persuaded her to stay in order to see the case through. After a few weeks, Selma decided to leave the safe house and find another job. Both Selma and Tanya have now settled down and are living in Cavite.