Up to now it still gives me goosebumps. I just could not believe it happened and could not erase scary thoughts of what else could have happened.
About 2 months ago, I had been doing maid/yaya hunting. I asked for referrals from relatives, friends and officemates; had begged to ask their own household help but got no results. Out of desperation I resorted to inquire from agencies, despite the fact that it was more expensive and I will be dealing with strangers. I short listed those that are legit (as they claim they have license) and talked to 5 of them (most are from sulit.com.ph)
They have almost the same standards: an office fee of 3k (minimum), 20-25% maid's salary (lowest salary is 3k), delivery charge (P300), and will provide Police and NBI clearance of maid. Medical tests are optional and their fees (ranges from P250 - 600) varies on the type of tests you want. Their replacement polices differs, the average is within 6 months should something happen (like what happened to us) they will provide a maid replacement. Most agencies also claim that they had thoroughly interviewed and trained (???) the applicants they provide, which I highly doubt.
We have decided to get from Lerixx Manpower since here is where my former manager' good friend got their maids. For now, I will not make any comment on this agency. I am still giving them the benefit of the doubt, BUT they better take actions and answer my calls. I had been trying to contact them after I went to the police but all their contact numbers (landline and cellphone) were either just ringing or busy.
Back to this runaway maid, it really did not occur to me that she would do such. Though I find her work as mediocre ('
pwede ng pagtyagaan kesa sa wala'). I have observed that she does not really interact with my daughter. Though I primarily hired her as maid and not yaya, there will be times of course that I had to do something else or there will be nights that Sofie will be awake while I am working and I would ask her to look after my baby. And she would just literally LOOK at my baby, just sitting beside her crib! It was fine, I guess, because Sofie could have picked up incorrect words. Whenever I ask her to list what we need to buy for a week's food menu, I often find mispelled basic words. And she seems to be color blinded because she interchanges the colors blue and green, black and gray. Please don't get me wrong, I am not expecting her to be an intelligent person but she, her bio data and the agency told me that she was at least a High School graduate!
She has a bad habit of answering "Hindi ko po alam (I don't know)" whenever you ask her and I find it absolutely irritating!
She had broken a few things as well: our stove knob, handle of pot (which was new) cover, did some silly things like using the liquid toilet bowl cleanser to the tiles of our CR, put our pitcher under the sink along with the cleaning materials. But all these are trivial, and I could let it pass.
What she did today has compelled me to go to the baranggay and police station (they are not that helpful, but that is another story) for police blotter.
So here is the story (Sorry for the long prelude, I just could not contain it within me.). After getting her first month's pay (May 17, 2009) she asked if she can have in advance her next month's pay and that she will just work it off. Her drama was that her mother was in the hospital and she was the only one who can give money. I did not buy it and instead told her that we can give her half of her salary on the 30th.
(It was her preference before to have her pay once a month.) She agreed and even suggested that she will just move her day off on the same date.
Three days ago, she asked if she can just get her salary on Thursday (yesterday) because her cousin will go to their province thus she will just meet up with her in Puregold/Hypermarket which was near us. That was fine with me. She went out 8:30am and came back 10:15am.
I told her then as she arrived to prepare our brunch, She did, though I noticed it took her long to finish it. After our family ate (12:30pm) we went back to our room. And that was the last time I saw her.
It was already around 4pm when we discovered that she was gone, along with some of our things! Based on the look of our kitchen and dining, it seems that she did not eat anymore and hurriedly put away the dishes, did not bother to clean the table and do the dishes. Her CR (Yes, she has her own maid's quarter and CR!) was a mess, all her unwashed maid's uniform were piled up! We found a note saying that she was sorry she had to leave because she is pregnant! This I could not believe! Just the other night I saw blood stains on her white pants indicating that she just had her period.
I could have forgiven her if she had just left, but she took the Nokia cellphone we lend her, a pair of slippers, few bills and coins, Sofie's RL bag (new and worth P2k) ... oh and I was also looking for our alcohol in the sala, she took that too!
I have yet to find what else is missing. I thank God that all our valuables are safe and I thank God that she did not harm my daughter. It just bothers me now, if all along she had planned this or if she had other bad plans for us.
Creepy, scary that we had someone in our home with such motives. God knows what else she could have done.
Her name is
Gerelyn Melad Lidong, 18 yo, born on Oct. 15, 1990. She said that her province was in Apayao. And she has a cousin in Fairview, Pasig. She refers this cousin as her only contact here in Manila.
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