Baja accuser is not a real nurse, US court told
JOSEPH G. LARIOSA, GMANews.TV
02/03/2009 | 04:11 PM
CHICAGO – Using a legal principle that those who come to court must come with clean hands, a lawyer has asked a court in New York to dismiss the case against his client, former Ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Liboon Baja Jr., claiming that the accuser misrepresented herself as nurse.
Salvador E. Tuy Jr., Baja’s private defense lawyer, presented a certification from the Philippine Professional Regulatory Commission showing that the plaintiff’s name, Marichu Suarez Baoanan, does not appear in the registry book of nurses in the Philippines.
Baoanan, with the help of state prosecutors, charged Baja and his wife before the United District Court of Southern District of New York with forced labor, trafficking with respect to peonage, slavery, and involuntary servitude, among others.
Ivy Suriyopas, one of the lawyers of Baoanan, sent an e-mailed to this reporter saying that her client attended Unciano Colleges and General Hospital Inc. in the Philippines.
"She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and graduated in April 1996," Suriyopas said.
This reporter, thourhg a friend, lawyer Mel “Batas" Mauricio, contacted Alfredo Caranat, Unciano’s registrar, to confirm if Baoanan was a nursing graduate of his school. Dr. Caranat, however, asked for a "special power of attorney" from Baoanan before he could release the information.
Tuy told Judge Victor Marrero that it would not be enough even if Baoanan held a degree in nursing from Unciano.
"this alone does not qualify her to work as a nurse even in the Philippines or in the US under applicable immigration laws, regulating the licensing of foreign educated nurses," Tuy said.
In the Philippines, anyone can practice as a nurse after passing a national board exam supervised by the PRC. In the United States, a Filipino nurse needs to pass NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse) and the CGFNS (Certification Program and Qualifying Exam) before being allowed to practice as a nurse.
Tuy criticized Baoanan’s lawyer for misrepresenting "to the court that a graduate of nursing is a nurse in very much the same argument that a graduate of law with a JD degree qualifies one to be lawyer."
Tuy said the "heart and soul" of Baoanan’s "case and cause of action is her claim that she is a nurse" when "in or about the fall of December 2005, in Makati City, Philippines, co-defendant Norma Baja told [her] that she would arrange for Baoanan to come to the US to work as a nurse in exchange for 500,000 Philippine pesos [about $10,000]."
"As part of the 'package deal,' Baoanan would get transportation to the US, a visa, work authorization, and assistance with finding employment as nurse," Tuy said.
Tuy asked that if Baoanan wanted to work as nurse why did she sign a contract of employment with Ambassador Baja as Baja’s domestic helper and not a nurse when Baoanan obtained a G-5 visa, which is given to domestic helpers of diplomats in the US.
"It must be assumed that she had time to read the contract when she presented it to the visa officer because a visa officer normally asks the applicant if she read the contract and understood it," Tuy said. "Because plaintiff claims that she has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing, it must further be assumed that she understood her Contract explicitly states she was a domestic helper and not a nurse."
He told the judge "there is no factual basis to assume that defendants deliberately misled plaintiff [Ms. Baoanan] into assuming that the contract she signed was for employment in the US as a nurse and not as a domestic worker."
In his discovery, Tuy learned that the 40-year-old Baoanan had "no experience as a nurse."
"She was a store keeper, a grocery owner, and a sophisticated businesswoman who operated in her hometown General Mariano Alvarez (GMA), Cavite province in the Philippines from 1997 until she left in January 2006 for her employment with the Bajas," Tuy said.
An affidavit of Boanan’s neighbor in GMA, Daisy Bautista Palacay, showed that Baoanan was a sari-sari [convenience] store owner from 1991 up to 2005.
"As far as I know, she took some units at Unciano College at Sta. Mesa (Manila) but got pregnant and, never took the PRC examination for nurses," the affidavit said.
The allegation that Norma Baja or Labare collected an employment agency fee from Baoanan could not have happened because most of Baoanan’s “neighbors and friends" say she “had no money to pay for it. It would be unbelievable" that "an educated ‘nurse’ and sophisticated businesswoman would be taken by a scam to pay 250,000 pesos on a promise for work as nurse without even a receipt of payment." - GMANews.TV
02/03/2009 | 04:11 PM
CHICAGO – Using a legal principle that those who come to court must come with clean hands, a lawyer has asked a court in New York to dismiss the case against his client, former Ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Liboon Baja Jr., claiming that the accuser misrepresented herself as nurse.
Salvador E. Tuy Jr., Baja’s private defense lawyer, presented a certification from the Philippine Professional Regulatory Commission showing that the plaintiff’s name, Marichu Suarez Baoanan, does not appear in the registry book of nurses in the Philippines.
Baoanan, with the help of state prosecutors, charged Baja and his wife before the United District Court of Southern District of New York with forced labor, trafficking with respect to peonage, slavery, and involuntary servitude, among others.
Ivy Suriyopas, one of the lawyers of Baoanan, sent an e-mailed to this reporter saying that her client attended Unciano Colleges and General Hospital Inc. in the Philippines.
"She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and graduated in April 1996," Suriyopas said.
This reporter, thourhg a friend, lawyer Mel “Batas" Mauricio, contacted Alfredo Caranat, Unciano’s registrar, to confirm if Baoanan was a nursing graduate of his school. Dr. Caranat, however, asked for a "special power of attorney" from Baoanan before he could release the information.
Tuy told Judge Victor Marrero that it would not be enough even if Baoanan held a degree in nursing from Unciano.
"this alone does not qualify her to work as a nurse even in the Philippines or in the US under applicable immigration laws, regulating the licensing of foreign educated nurses," Tuy said.
In the Philippines, anyone can practice as a nurse after passing a national board exam supervised by the PRC. In the United States, a Filipino nurse needs to pass NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse) and the CGFNS (Certification Program and Qualifying Exam) before being allowed to practice as a nurse.
Tuy criticized Baoanan’s lawyer for misrepresenting "to the court that a graduate of nursing is a nurse in very much the same argument that a graduate of law with a JD degree qualifies one to be lawyer."
Tuy said the "heart and soul" of Baoanan’s "case and cause of action is her claim that she is a nurse" when "in or about the fall of December 2005, in Makati City, Philippines, co-defendant Norma Baja told [her] that she would arrange for Baoanan to come to the US to work as a nurse in exchange for 500,000 Philippine pesos [about $10,000]."
"As part of the 'package deal,' Baoanan would get transportation to the US, a visa, work authorization, and assistance with finding employment as nurse," Tuy said.
Tuy asked that if Baoanan wanted to work as nurse why did she sign a contract of employment with Ambassador Baja as Baja’s domestic helper and not a nurse when Baoanan obtained a G-5 visa, which is given to domestic helpers of diplomats in the US.
"It must be assumed that she had time to read the contract when she presented it to the visa officer because a visa officer normally asks the applicant if she read the contract and understood it," Tuy said. "Because plaintiff claims that she has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing, it must further be assumed that she understood her Contract explicitly states she was a domestic helper and not a nurse."
He told the judge "there is no factual basis to assume that defendants deliberately misled plaintiff [Ms. Baoanan] into assuming that the contract she signed was for employment in the US as a nurse and not as a domestic worker."
In his discovery, Tuy learned that the 40-year-old Baoanan had "no experience as a nurse."
"She was a store keeper, a grocery owner, and a sophisticated businesswoman who operated in her hometown General Mariano Alvarez (GMA), Cavite province in the Philippines from 1997 until she left in January 2006 for her employment with the Bajas," Tuy said.
An affidavit of Boanan’s neighbor in GMA, Daisy Bautista Palacay, showed that Baoanan was a sari-sari [convenience] store owner from 1991 up to 2005.
"As far as I know, she took some units at Unciano College at Sta. Mesa (Manila) but got pregnant and, never took the PRC examination for nurses," the affidavit said.
The allegation that Norma Baja or Labare collected an employment agency fee from Baoanan could not have happened because most of Baoanan’s “neighbors and friends" say she “had no money to pay for it. It would be unbelievable" that "an educated ‘nurse’ and sophisticated businesswoman would be taken by a scam to pay 250,000 pesos on a promise for work as nurse without even a receipt of payment." - GMANews.TV
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