Three years ago, “Honey”* was in her employers’ kitchen, in a spacious flat somewhere in Kuala Lumpur. Her employers, an upwardly mobile young couple, treated her well at first. The congeniality was short-lived. One day, the lady employer stepped into the kitchen and heated a frying pan on the stove. “Honey” thought nothing of it, thinking that her lady boss was just about to prepare a meal. Her “madam” lifted the frying pan and scalded her domestic worker with boiling oil. It was not the first time that “Honey” cried out in pain.
She recalled a time when the couple fought. She heard the heated exchange behind the closed bedroom door. The husband stormed out, saw “Honey,” and punched her in the eye. Blood flowed from a deep cut under her left eye, leaving a scar that took a longer time to heal than the lovers’ spat. They also starved her. The lady employer cut her hair, to make “Honey” ugly, like an unkempt prisoner, which in actuality, she was. When the couple saw that their domestic worker has become too weak for comfort, and in danger of dying in their fancy house, they decided to take a long drive and drop her off by the road. They abandoned her, like one would a sickly slave.
A Filipino couple saw “Honey,” dazed, bloodied and weak, walking ever so slowly. They brought her to church. The church called the Philippine Embassy. They took her in, cared for her, and notified the police. Upon seeing her condition, the Malaysian Royal Police decided to pursue the Malaysian couple. To ensure continuity of the case, they brought “Honey” to a safehouse. Our non-profit organization, the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, in coordination with the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA), brought the OFW’s parents to see her in Malaysia. They were not allowed to visit her in the safehouse. A room was provided for in the Malaysian police headquarters so that the family can spend time together. I accompanied the parents, together with Administrator Hans Cacdac. This was in 2017, three years ago.
While I was in Malaysia, the police told me that “Honey’s” scars were too many to count. She had burn wounds, knife cuts, scars on both legs, on her face, scalp and even her nape. Oh, how she suffered! She told me that whenever she felt like giving up, the image of her parents would enter her mind. Another day, she would tell herself. Just survive one more day. And, she did. On September 30, 2020, the Malaysian court convicted the Malaysian couple for human trafficking. The female employer received a jail term of 12 years, while the husband will have to stay in jail for 10 years. Civil damages were also awarded in favor of “Honey”, the equivalent of at least P200,000. We commend the Department of Foreign Affairs for not giving up on “Honey’s” case; and for giving her the same compassionate attention despite all these years.
Twelve years is not a long time in jail for someone who scalded your daughter with cooking oil; nor is 10 years sufficient time for a man who would hit your sister after a marital spat. Yet, in so many other cases involving such domestic violence and human trafficking, litigation never happens. The victim retracts out of fear or decides to simply go home. The defendants, being the employers that they are, hire the best lawyers and work the system so they could sidestep the judicial process. In this particular case, the Malaysian police, our embassy, and the court itself were all on “Honey’s” side. You can’t have scars too many to count and ask the court to believe that they were all self-inflicted.
“Honey” was a daycare teacher before she left to work as a domestic worker in Malaysia. She now works for the Blas F. Ople Policy Center as one of our encoders and a member of the legal assistance team. I asked her how it feels to be victorious at last; and for the case to be finally over with. “I feel at peace now,” was her brief yet poignant reply. She also vowed to continue helping distressed OFWs in filing complaints against their exploiters.
“Honey” also intends to use her modest financial windfall to invest in a small business for her family.
The Malaysian couple that thought they would scar their domestic worker for life will now have to live separately behind bars, devoid of the luxuries they formerly enjoyed. Yes, 12 years may seem like a short time. But to stare at the same walls and be restricted to the same routine day after day after day is punishment enough. “Honey” is free; they are not. The person they treated as slave can go out into the sunlight and savor the infinite steps of freedom. It is her employers’ turn to taste the bitterness that comes with being declared by no less than their country as human traffickers, and thus criminals with a record that will follow them to their graves.
*Honey was the alias chosen by the OFW concerned for security and privacy purposes.
Susan V. Ople heads the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, a nonprofit organization that deals with labor and migration issues. She also represents the OFW sector in the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking.
Image credits: Job Ruzgal