All in the family?

The dismissed ambassador to Brazil has threatened to take legal action against what she called the “mishandling” of her case involving her abuse of a maid in the diplomatic residence. Marichu Mauro was caught on security camera inflicting physical violence on the 51-year-old maid, and the footage was shown on Brazilian TV.

Mauro was summoned back to the Philippines last October for investigation. On March 1, President Duterte announced that he had signed the order for the envoy’s dismissal, forfeiture of retirement benefits, prohibition from taking civil service exams, and disqualification from holding public office.

The footage showing instances of Mauro manhandling the maid was clear and, in current parlance, cringe-worthy. But in a statement and in TV interviews, Mauro cried betrayal by her home office, citing unexamined “dynamics” and saying that the hearing panel of the Department of Foreign Affairs had committed “heavy deficiencies” and considered “the explanation and contextualization of what actually transpired” of no consequence.

The weary observer gawking at the footage would wonder what context was appropriate to deem the inflicted violence permissible and put the envoy — “a fine diplomat,” per Foreign Secretary Teddyboy Locsin — well within legal and moral parameters to behave in the manner she did.

Mauro expressed regret that the maid was “never an active participant” in the DFA inquiry, suggesting that the latter’s testimony would have apprised the investigators of the “familiarity” in their relationship that had “caused me to cross boundaries I would never cross” — and consequently absolved her of the violence she had inflicted.

This must be the “dynamics” that she cited, implying that in relationships dominated by “familiarity,” behavior such as hers — behavior marked by what she described as stress in running the embassy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic — should be understood and ultimately condoned. This kind of thinking is not unfamiliar; it mirrors the common, grievous mindset that violence occurring within a family — wife battering, for example, or child abuse, including incest — is a family matter and should be kept away from the prying, judging eyes of society at large.

The “context” was that the maid “might be a distant, impecunious relative,” Locsin revealed in a tweet, tossing another telling factor into the sorry mix. (Recall the tale of horror of an impoverished relative brought by a family to the United States. The relative, undocumented, infinitely grateful for being smuggled into the land of milk and honey, gradually lapsed into an indentured servant, waiting on the family members hand and foot, trapped but slow to know it.) “These things happen in traditional Filipino families,” tweeted Locsin, doubtless nodding wisely. “Familiarity breeds insensibility. Sadly it was videotaped…”

Mauro said she had sought forgiveness from her maid, who extended it. The maid herself told ABS-CBN that but for the physical assaults, the envoy had been kind to her. By her account it didn’t take much to provoke acts of violence: Stuff like the slow cleanup of bathrooms or what seemed like a disorderly way of taking in the wash was sufficient to rile the boss. But she never bridled at such treatment, the maid said; she made do with weeping before sleeping, ever mindful of the dictates of caste: “Kasi siyempre amo siya, katulong ka lang…” And she won’t press charges.

It is yet unknown how the footage from the security camera documenting the ambassador’s abuse of her maid ended up with the Brazilian media, thereby shining a light once more on the continuing travails of Filipinos laboring in foreign lands. Mauro, who was posted to Brazil in 2018, said she had “invested half of my entire life in DFA in pursuit of public service.”

She said the investigating panel should have looked into whether she had “mistreated any overseas Filipino at any time,” curiously forgetting that her maid was exactly that, an overseas Filipino, laboring in her own household, the well-being of whom she was sworn to ensure. She rued that the panel ignored letters of support from other overseas Filipinos “attesting that I am not the cruel person depicted in those uncontextualized videos.” She took umbrage at her being made “an example of an abusive official.”

Locsin described Mauro’s dismissal as “harsh.” Yet he made an example of her in subsequently deciding that the DFA would no longer allow diplomats to bring household staff with them to overseas posts. “It can’t happen again,” he said. Right.