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| Basto was accused of stealing two $20 from her co-worker |
By Vir B. Lumicao
A Filipina domestic helper accused of stealing $40 from her
co-worker in Saikung was acquitted of the charge on Mar 15 at Kwun Tong court. .
The defendant, 52-year-old Imelda Basto, smiled with relief
after Magistrate Philip Chan pronounced his verdict.
After the magistrate left the courtroom, Basto turned around
and embraced Edwina Antonio, executive director of the Bethune House Migrant
Women’s Refuge who helped her with her case and gave her shelter after being
released on bail last November.
Chan said the prosecution failed to prove the case against
Basto beyond reasonable doubt.
At first, however, it sounded like the magistrate’s ruling
would favor Basto’s accuser, Catherine Cuadra, when he said he didn’t find the
inconsistencies in the latter’s testimony material to the case.
Basto was initially accused by Cuadra of stealing $141.50
from the pocket of her jacket that she left in the kitchen of their employer’s
house in Saikung on Nov 7 last year but changed the amount to $40 when she gave
evidence during the trial on Mar 6.
Cuadra said that three days earlier, she lost the $2,000
that she had kept padlocked in her rucksack in the room that she shared with
Basto.
But as she had no proof to pin down Basto, Cuadra said she photographed
two $20 bills and put them in her jacket’s pocket along with other cash before
she left with their employer to fetch her ward from school.
When she checked the money in her jacket, she said she found
the two $20 bills gone but not the rest of the amount totaling $141.50, and reported the matter to their employer the
next morning. Police were called and during a search of Basto’s suitcase, they
found the missing bills in her wallet, so they arrested her.
On cross-examination, defense counsel Yasmine Zahir asked
why Cuadra did not report when her $2,000 went missing from her rucksack, but
told the employers and called police when she lost $40.
Zahir also asked
Cuadra if she did not find it unreasonable that Basto took only $40 and not the
whole $141.50.
The defense lawyer suggested to Cuadra that she made up the
theft story because she wanted to get rid of Basto, with whom she had had
arguments over the division of work.
Cuadra disagreed, saying they were in good terms.
In her defense, Basto said the $20 bills were payment for
the $40 she had lent to Cuadra on Nov. 3. When she asked for it back, Cuadra
told her to get it from the jacket as she and their employer were in a rush to
pick up her ward.
Basto said Cuadra made up the story because she did not want
to take orders from her. Basto had been working for their employer for more
than three years when Cuadra was hired as a second maid in September 2017.
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