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Agence France-Presse

The Philippines has sacked its former ambassador to Brazil, after she was caught on camera attacking a domestic worker at her official residence in Brasilia.
Marichu Mauro was recalled to Manila late last year after Brazil’s GloboNews channel broadcast security camera footage filmed over eight months showing her repeatedly assaulting a member of her household staff.
The career diplomat has now been dismissed from the foreign service, President Rodrigo Duterte told a television audience on Monday.
“There are rules to be followed. If you disobey, you take the risk. If something goes wrong, it’s gonna hit you,” Duterte said.
Philippines recalls ambassador to Brazil for allegedly mistreating domestic staff
Mauro’s firing means she will lose her pension. She is also barred from standing for public office.
According to GloboNews, the Filipino worker was employed at the ambassador’s official residence, a large gated compound in Brazil’s capital.
Footage of the abuse – dated between March and October 2020 – was used as evidence in a complaint lodged with the Philippine government against Mauro, it said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said at the time that the unidentified victim had returned to Philippines and that it was trying to reach her amid an investigation.
Mauro has not publicly commented on the allegations. She was posted to Brazil in 2018, from where she oversaw the missions to Colombia, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela.
Mauro has not responded to requests for comment on her dismissal.
Singapore woman jailed for six months for beating Philippine domestic worker
Millions of Filipinos escape low wages, unemployment and limited opportunities at home by going overseas, including as to become domestic workers. Their remittances are vital to the local economy.
But many of these workers face difficult or dangerous conditions, and reports of physical or psychological abuse are not uncommon, though most instances involve foreign employers.

The decision comes as Duterte pushes a campaign against official abuses and corruption in his last full year in power.
Duterte, whose six-year term ends next year, has been reading the names of government employees and officers implicated in corruption in his TV appearances to highlight his campaign against abuses and irregularities.
Scepticism over Sinovac jab as Philippines’ vaccination drive begins
But Duterte, a former government prosecutor who has threatened drug suspects with death and is known for his expletives-laden outbursts, has faced criticisms for abusive behaviour himself. In his televised remarks on Monday night, Duterte lashed out at Vice-President Leni Robredo for criticising the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and vaccination campaign.
“You seem to have an angel face but a devilish mind,” Duterte said, calling Robredo’s stance “idiotic” in his rambling speech.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


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The Philippines

Philippines fires former Brazil ambassador over domestic worker abuse

Former Brazilian president Michel Temer presents Marichu Mauro with diplomatic credentials when she started her position as ambassador in 2018. Photo: Handout

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte holds a vial of Sinovac’s coronavirus vaccine at Villamor Air Base in Metro Manila, Philippines, Photo: Reuters

This handout photo taken on February 28, 2021 and received from the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) shows workers in protective suits disinfecting one of the crates containing the first batch of Sinovac vaccines shortly after its arrival onboard a Chinese air force plane at Villamor air base in Manila. (Photo by Handout / Presidential Communications Operations Office / AFP) / -----EDITORS NOTE --- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Presidential Communications Operations Office" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

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Health workers attend to a man faking an adverse reaction to a vaccine during a practice drill at a hospital in Metro Manila on Thursday. The Philippines has struggled to make a start on its inoculation programme. Photo: EPA-EFE

FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2020, file photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte talks with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila, Philippines. Duterte’s administration wants considerably more military aid from the United States in exchange for not abrogating a key security pact with Washington, his spokesman said Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, rejecting criticism that the blunt demand resembled extortion. (Richard Madelo/Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP, File)

epa09020157 A pharmacist puts a vaccine into a syringe during a COVID-19 vaccination drill at the Medical City hospital in Ortigas City, Metro Manila, Philippines, 18 February 2021. The Medical City hospital conducted a vaccination drill as it prepares for the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines for its health workers. EPA-EFE/MARK R. CRISTINO

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The ambassador of the Philippines residence in Tokyo, from the book, History and Heritage of the Kudan: The Official Residence of the Philippine Ambassador to Japan. Photo by Wig Tysmans, reprinted with the permission of the author, historian Ambeth R. Ocampo

The ambassador of the Philippines residence in Tokyo, from the book, History and Heritage of the Kudan: The Official Residence of the Philippine Ambassador to Japan. Photo by Wig Tysmans, Reprinted with the permission of the author, historian Ambeth R. Ocampo

Philippines' Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. speaks during a press briefing with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi after their meeting in Manila, Philippines, January 9, 2020. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

FILE PHOTO: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures during the change of command ceremony of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines April 18, 2018. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao/File Photo

Corazon Aquino, former president of the Philippines, addressing the opening ceremony of the 51st International Zonta Convention held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. 19JUL92

Philippines investigates domestic helper’s suicide at shelter in Lebanon

Empty roads seen in Beirut on May 14, 2020 during Lebanon’s coronavirus lockdown. Photo: EPA-EFE

A maid from the Philippines wears a mask to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus as she walks in front of a newspaper kiosk in central Beirut's commercial Hamra Street, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

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Asia

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Marichu Mauro was recalled to Manila last year after Brazilian media broadcast CCTV footage of her repeatedly assaulting the staff member
President Rodrigo Duterte said ‘there are rules to be followed’. The former diplomat will lose her pension and is barred from standing for public office



The diplomat was recalled to Manila last year after Brazilian media broadcast CCTV footage of her repeatedly assaulting a member of her household staff.


Diplomacy

Rodrigo Duterte