DFA orders envoy in household abuse video to explain

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has ordered the recalled Philippine ambassador to Brazil to explain her actions after she was caught on video hurting a household helper several times.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Malaya said Thursday that the DFA has issued a show cause order to Ambassador Marichu Mauro as part of a preliminary investigation.

Malaya said the DFA itself initiated the complaint without waiting for a private party to come forward "given the wide publicity on this subject and the existence of video footage."

The undersecretary told lawmakers that Mauro had been the Philippine envoy to Brazil since March 2016 and had been in the foreign service since February 1995.

She is still in Brazil but has received instructions to return to the Philippines immediately, Malaya said.

The DFA recalled Mauro after a Brazilian media outlet published CCTV footage showing the her pulling the helper's hair and ears, and throwing objects at her.

The helper, a Filipina, is back in the country. She had been with Mauro and her family for years, according to the DFA. The nonprofit Blas F. Ople Policy Center has offered her legal and livelihood assistance

"The video is very telling and I hope that she has a very good explanation [for] what she's doing, pero from where I sit, there is no explanation to that, it is what it is," said TUCP Party-list Rep. Raymond Mendoza, chair of the overseas workers affairs committee.

"I hope that there is a firm commitment to cleanse your ranks," he said.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola assured justice would be served.

"We stand by what the Secretary of Foreign Affairs has said and we assure you, Your Honor, that there will be justice in this case," she said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. has vowed that the department's response to the matter would be severe "to the fullest extent of the law."

President Rodrigo Duterte has given the DFA the go-signal to investigate Mauro.

Section 51 of the Foreign Service Act states that: "Chiefs of Mission who are commissioned by the President as ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary shall not be investigated by the Board [of Foreign Service Administration] or separated from the service unless there is an express written directive from the President. -NB, GMA News