RP consul’s kin convicted in NJ

November 17, 2007  --  Got something to say?
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NEW JERSEY Mrs. Angelita Reyes, 68, the mother-in-law of a Philippine vice consul, last month was sentenced to three years probation and 50 hours of community service for holding Arlene Gado, a Filipino nanny, 23, on involuntary servitude. She was also ordered to pay by Judge Maryanne Bielanowicz of the Mercer County superior court a total of $78,104 as restitution representing what she should have received based on her employment contract.
Reyes pleaded guilty in August to the charge of third-degree criminal restraint before Superior Court Judge Maria Marinari Sypek for withholding Gados passport and preventing her from leaving the house without the company of family members. She was paid only a portion of what she was supposed to receive from Reyes.
The New Jersey deputy attorney general Jennifer Gottschalk said human trafficking takes many forms, but the common thread is exploitation of the vulnerable, particularly women and children. We urge anyone with information about human trafficking to alert us.
Gado from Mindoro Occidental came to the US in 2005 after she signed a contract to care for the three children of Vice Consul Anthony Mandap, a vice consul in the Philippine consulate in San Francisco. The contract said she would be paid $8 an hour in a 40-hour work week with overtime at a time of time-and-a-half.
Investigators of the criminal justice system later determined that Gado was told after arrival in California that she was needed in the home of Mandaps inlaws, Angelita and Norberto Reyes in Windsor, New Jersey. The wife of the vice consul and a sister accompanied Gado to New Jersey on May 1, 2005. When they left, they took Gados passport saying it was needed for her visa renewal.
For two years, Gado was told to provide continuous care to Reyes incapacitated husband, including feeding and bathing in addition to her work to clean house and cook all meals. She was also called upon from time to time to give massages, manicures and pedicures to relatives and friends of the Reyeses. For her services, she was paid $250 a month up to July 2006 when her pay was increased to $325 a month because she was ordered to care for the Reyeses infant granddaughter.
She was not allowed to leave the house because the Reyeses told her she could be arrested for lack of documentation. But through a cellphone, she was able to contact a cousin in Michigan. The cousin contacted the NJ department of labor in March 2007 because she was concerned about Gados low earnings. The DOL later referred the case to the division of criminal justice.
When the case was exposed, Mandap was asked by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs to explain why he was engaged in human trafficking. He explained the reason he passed on the nanny to his relatives was that he was at that time being reassigned to the Philippine embassy in Ankara, Turkey.
DFA reprimanded him but cleared him of human trafficking charges.
In a public statement, Mandap said the allegations of human trafficking are absurd and grossly exaggerated. He also denied that there was an abuse of his diplomatic privileges because it was his mother-in-law who was being charged in court.


Posted by News Team | Filed Under Articles/Stories 

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