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MANILA, Philippines -- Former Philippine ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Baja and his wife do not have diplomatic immunity in the civil case of slavery and trafficking filed against them in New York, the lawyer of the Filipina nursing graduate who worked as a domestic helper in his house for three months said.
In an e-mail exchange with INQUIRER.net, Ivy Suriyopas, lawyer of Marichu Baoanan, contended that Baja and his wife are not entitled to immunity because they violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations when they received P250,000 from Baoanan to expedite her departure for the United States through their recruitment agency, Labaire International Travel.
The United States District Court's Southern District of New York will determine if it has jurisdiction over the case once it resolves the immunity issue.
On the instructions of the court, Suriyopas, of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), filed a brief to assert that the Bajas are not entitled to diplomatic immunity.
"Defendants engaged in commercial activity and are exempted from the protections of diplomatic immunity," according to the brief, a copy of which was furnished INQUIRER.net.
The complainant argued that Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations provides that "commercial activities" are not protected by diplomatic immunity.
The brief cited Article 42 of the convention, which states, "A diplomatic agent shall not in the receiving State practice for personal profit any professional or commercial activity," and Article 31, which states, "An action relating to any professional or commercial activity exercised by the diplomatic agent in the receiving State outside his official functions."
In her case against the Bajas, Baoanan said Mrs. Baja originally sought a placement fee of P500,000 from her, but she was able to pay only P250,000. She said the Bajas "obtained new travel documents for [her]…to ensure collection of the remaining balance of the alleged total fees of P500,000."
The complainant's lawyer argued that when the Bajas collected an employment agency fee in the Philippines and subsequently collected labor and services toward the balance of the alleged debt in the US, they engaged in commercial activity.
"These actions by [the] Baja defendants demonstrate that they were engaged in commercial activity and thus, their trafficking of Plaintiff is not protected by diplomatic immunity," according to the brief.
At the same, Baoanan's lawyer argued that as Baja has already retired from his position in the UN, he is no longer immune from suit.
Citing the same Vienna Convention, the brief said: "[When] the functions of a person enjoying privileges and immunities have come to an end, such privileges and immunities shall normally cease at the moment when he leaves the country, or on expiry of a reasonable period in which to do so, but shall subsist until that time."
Baja "sought to collect this alleged debt from her in the US through her labor and services by subjecting her to involuntary servitude, forced labor, debt bondage, peonage, and slavery."
However, the case against Bajas' daughter, Maria Elizabeth Baja Facundo, who is similarly charged with her parents, is under the court's jurisdiction. This was already established by the United States Mission to the UN. In a letter, Minister Counselor Russell Graham of the Host Country Affairs said she is not covered by the diplomatic immunity.
Graham also noted that the former ambassador to the UN did not disclose that Baoanan was their employee.
Baoanan worked as a domestic helper in the ambassador's residence between January 13, 2006 and April 13, 2006 until she escaped and later filed cases of human rights violation against Baja.
