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Ano In LA 01/07/2011 9:11:00 PM
OMG!!! I know these people - Pelayo-Padolina couple. It's shocking to know that they're capable of committing that heinous crime. They used to go to a church in LA. I thought they were a nice family. How tragic. The kids must be devastated.
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Victoria 12/10/2010 8:12:00 PM
reality s scar.. for Kris D - maybe u know him (the instructor)& U don't know the victim, of course u believe him. but nobody knows the truth only the people involved. & i think they are both users the victim use them to fulfill their dreams & Pelayo & the instructor use them to have more money. The thing is s the victim s working for Pelayo to earned the money by working too hard & the instructor & Pelayo s earning money through the victim...
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billy bob 02/05/2010 11:28:00 PM
Mary made 100 bucks/month in the Phiippines now she's getting 120/DAY for wiping butts and is here on her own - that's a hell of a lot of money, many from around the world would be happy to take her place. AS LONG AS she can leave when she wants.
I worked as a nurse aide when I was 16 though I'm from a middle class family because it's the only job I could get with no experience until later I got a job as a cashier at a Kmart type place. This money also helped me get to college, an Ivy League one at that.
Working with old people taught me a lot about their humanity, how people treat the elderly, gave me a chance to work with a friend of mine folding clothes and feeding these people and so on, and gave me a firsthand experience with the blue collar adults who do these jobs their whole lives and don't have a choice. And I did it for min. wage. WHO was the endentured "servant" then? Here in L A teens are too spoiled to take such jobs these days and claim we need illegals - until that changes or we have more sensible guest worker programs, what is the alternative?
Ironically under the new state budget crisis, the Assembly wants to END funding for inhome care workers and to reduce the wages for those who remain to bare min. wage. WHO is creating slave labor and forcing these situations?
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KRIS D. 07/06/2009 3:58:00 PM
its really hard to judge anybody if you only heard one side of the story!! only God can judge justly.. but i know that not all the statement you wrote here is true..i know the life of the victim and she is a user, selfish and ambitious!! her auntie was the one who convinced her to work because her auntie has been working in that facilities for a long time. they used the martial arts instructor to fulfill their dreams.. now they had a good life in america and all the people they used are suffering.. if you search the background of the instructors you can conclude that they are the victim instead.i know this because he's been my instructor for 15 years. my instructors goal is to bring honor and glory to our country. he started competing internationally since 1997 and started in korea. my instructor kept telling us that we can make our country big by winning the gold in other country.. my instructor is very helpful and has a lot of charitable works. the victim went to our gym and ask my instructor to help her. my instructor told the victim that granting a visa was not in my instructors hand. the instructor was promised by the victim that the employer of her auntie will help the airfare of the team if the victim can go to america. because we have a lot of potential players who are very poor, our team all agreed.. but now only our instructor suffered and people think that our instructor is really bad. always try to consider the following: the victims are not minor they are early 30 of age and jobless here in the philippines.now my conclusion is: the victim A.G. IS VERY INTELLIGENT AND WERE ABLE TO USE YOU AND ME TO FULFILL HER DREAMS. SHE MADE IT BECAUSE SHE WAS ABLE TO CONVINCED THE PEOPLE THAT SHE WAS A VICTIM.. BUT ONE THING SHE FORGOT!!! WHAT EVER SHE SAW SHE WILL REAP IN A PROPER TIME AND ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HELPED HER TO CONVINCED PEOPLE THAT SHE WAS VA VICTIM WILL EXPERIENCED TH SAME.. GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING AND YOU CANNOT HIDE ANYTHING!!
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Emmanuel 06/28/2009 7:45:00 AM
YOU only heard one side of the story, but try to balance the whole situation and consider the following questions:
1. who can work 24 hours a day and able to survive for almost 3yrs and never get sick??(even robots cannot do that)
2. the considered victims were threatened the very 1st day they arrived and were told that if they dont want to work the owner of the home care will bring them back to the philippines as soon as possible and they cannot work for anybody.( the victims can easily tell their employer to let them go because they were not happy but they never did???.}
3. the victims are in their early 30's and can easily escape if they wanted to because they were trained in martial arts and they have genuine records in the philippines showing this skill.
4. their employer is composed of 1 family with children and most of the time were out of the house and only the said victims were left with their patients. surely, its very easy for the said victims to escape anytime they wanted to{even if you have or you dont have passport but your I-94 visa was expired, its also the same you can always go back to the philippines by using travel document issued by the philippine embassy..they were just ambitious!
5. the said victims had no jobs in the philippines and A.G's auntie who worked in vernon home care for almost 10yrs was the one who encouraged A.G to work.( the auntie who has been working at vernon home care knows whats gonna happen to her niece and should be punished too because she was part of the scheme}.
6. the victims will do anything just to be in america because they were nothing in the philippines{jobless}. try to consider also that philippines is a 3rd world country and earning $100 a month is good enough already.
7. if the people who helped the victims come to america were punished, the victims themselves should also be punished because they agreed/decided to work in america considering that they were not minors. though their employer made a mistake of not paying them the standard wage , the victims knew what the working conditions would be because AG's aunt has been working in that facility for a long time.
8. one of the reasons why the victims complained was that they were able to compare their salary with the other caregivers and decided to do something to fulfill their dreams.. now the martial arts instructor who helped the victims is suffering until now. that instructor has a good reputation and made the philippines popular by bringing honor thru medals and trophies he brought home.
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Mary 04/09/2009 11:05:00 PM
Get a clue everyone: the world's population is over 6 billion and growing. Most of these people live in the Third World. Hello!!! Everyone cannot live in America, lest America become, you guessed it, very poor and overcrowded itself. Legal and illegal immigration are in desparate need of common sense reform.
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Lindsay 04/03/2009 1:44:00 AM
Great article--very engaging and well written.
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brian 03/07/2009 4:31:00 AM
The inhuman treatment of these illegal immigrants is apalling and the traffickers and "clients" are definitely wrong to profit from their exploitation. However, there is definitely a certain amount of duplicity and "greed" and disregard for the law of another country exhibited by anyone who goes so far as to learn enough martial arts moves to pass as an olympic athlete in order to gain entry to a country just because they pay better wages than the country they are living in. That being said, there will always be a supply as long as there is a demand. The place to look to end all of this is with the employers - whether private citizens with housekeepers etc. or large construction firms employing 100's for cheap labor. This nation's economy's addiction to that cheap labor coupled with the corruption and greed of the governments of the nations who supply it are the roots of the problem and it must be cut off there.
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brian 03/07/2009 4:31:00 AM
The inhuman treatment of these illegal immigrants is apalling and the traffickers and "clients" are definitely wrong to profit from their exploitation. However, there is definitely a certain amount of duplicity and "greed" and disregard for the law of another country exhibited by anyone who goes so far as to learn enough martial arts moves to pass as an olympic athlete in order to gain entry to a country just because they pay better wages than the country they are living in. That being said, there will always be a supply as long as there is a demand. The place to look to end all of this is with the employers - whether private citizens with housekeepers etc. or large construction firms employing 100's for cheap labor. This nation's economy's addiction to that cheap labor coupled with the corruption and greed of the governments of the nations who supply it are the roots of the problem and it must be cut off there.
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Prof. Lupin 03/05/2009 12:12:00 PM
I would like to thank Ms. Alimurung for this well written, engaging article. This is a subject that deserves more coverage in this insightful, thought provoking way.
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Stephen 02/26/2009 9:49:00 PM
There is also exploitation of filipino illegal immigrants at the 'professional' level here in Los Angeles. Go to ANY jewelry store or manufacturer downtown, and take a look who's in the office doing the books. These jewelers have for years been hiring filipino accountants for $15/hr, rather than pay the market rate to an American accountant.
Same goes with some of the accounting firms in Encino and property management firms in Hancock Park. I know one filipina accountant who told me resumes from American accountants were thrown away immediately at the place where she worked as an accountant for very low wages.
These business owners should be jailed, but of course they won't because they contribute significantly to their LA City Council reps and to mayor Villaraigosa. They think they are untouchable - and sadly they are.
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Lawonda 02/25/2009 11:10:00 PM
California should spend lotsa money to start a program using whatever means necessary to encourage slaves to come out and fight for their rights. Advertise on TV, newspapers, etc. and provide phone numbers for them to call the right agencies for help. Be sure to let them know that a green card will be waiting for them at the end of the rainbow.
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Anon 02/25/2009 12:28:00 AM
Re Julie's comments, how sad that this well-written article draws less than a dozen comments, while stories on much less weighty topics will have more than a hundred people chiming in.
We are too comfortable with our low-cost child and elder care, bargain landscape services, and the cheap and tasty restaurants that stay open around the clock. We are happy with our modern-day slaves and we don't want to give them up.
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Julie 02/24/2009 9:24:00 PM
I am very appreciative to both the author and the Weekly for this article.
But, I do want to address one thing I felt was missing. The author asks "Why does this happen?" and notes the demand as a major part of the problem saying the "first-world clamor[s] for someone, anyone, to do disagreeable, menial tasks." I would like to take that a bit further. The fact that individual Americans such as the VP of Sony Pictures Entertainment, the NJ Merrill Lynch executive, and the Wisconsin doctor mentioned in article essentially enslaved their domestic help is a major concern. Yes, we all need to think twice before we buy products made in Chinese sweatshops, despite how removed we feel from the inhuman production of the items we consume. But, we also need to think hard about what in our culture could possibly make people (doctors and executives no less, with plenty of disposable income) think it is ok to enslave and mistreat people so directly. It really disgusts me that people, wealthy people who run companies and medical offices, have such a lack of awareness, morals, and basic human kindness. It is one thing to buy products made in sweat shops, which we should certainly all steer away from. But, it is another thing to work your housekeeper 18 hours a day and leave her only a dog bed to sleep on.
I am concerned about the morals in our county.
Anyone else?
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Private due to security 02/22/2009 2:08:00 PM
I am a Los Angeles native living in Dubai as a journalist. Unfortunately this story is indeed an everyday reality, especially here. Filipinos are the indentured servants here as well, making at best, $250 USD per month for labor intensive jobs, 13 hours a day, six days per week. One restaurant worker contacted me and asked me to help him. I don't know what to do or how I can help but akin to the story I just read, all the workers stories here seem to have a common thread of lies. It's pathetic and greedy but it happens. Don't even get me started on the construction workers from India and Pakistan. Their exploitation is worse.
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Kevin 02/21/2009 5:09:00 AM
This is the best article I've ever read about human trafficking, and there have been a lot in the mainstream media. I like how the author managed to steer clear of the typical sensationalism that accompanies the subject and focus on the true nature of the problem. This article is extremely well-written and manages to convey complex ideas in deceptively simple language.
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Aaron Goodell 02/21/2009 4:18:00 AM
This interesting article reminds me, as a professional ass-wiper, that the service industry is always pushing against law-and-order and human rights. When is automation coming? When will helpless geriatric patients start getting out -sourced to other countries? When will workers voluntarily give up overtime pay, the 8 hour day and the 40 hour week? (Look that one up in recent legislation.) Do we really need training and back-ground checks, which cost America money? Wasn't pre-OBRA the good old days? Look out. They are coming after you, either as a "worker" or as a "client".
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Anon 02/20/2009 11:19:00 PM
Pelayo has another Long Beach care home a couple of blocks away, at the corner of Walton and Radnor. Nice place!
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Chris 02/20/2009 10:10:00 AM
In response to Rob's Comment:
I agree. I think we've LONG surpassed the point of diminishing returns with immigration here in California. Like around thirty-five years ago.
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PB 02/20/2009 8:15:00 AM
In response to Rob's Comment:
"We can only hope that, with time, this enconomic
downturn will make the USA a less popular destination for
for both legal and illegal immigrants."
Comment by rob from dipolog on Feb 19th, 2009, 21:05 pm
Your comment is so ignorant!! Regardless of the USA's economic downturn, the US will always be a place immigrants will want to come to, especially when they come from 3rd world countries.
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rob 02/20/2009 7:05:00 AM
We can only hope that, with time, this enconomic downturn will make the USA a less popular destination for for both legal and illegal immigrants.
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MdeG 02/20/2009 2:29:00 AM
I can understand the call for punishment -- But more to the point, I'm grateful that these unfortunate young women have been found and freed. There are thousands like them.
What we should all be looking at: How we as a society get tempted into taking advantage of cheap goodies. Sweatshop products, undocumented laborers who won't dare to sue if they don't get paid, people on temporary work visas who can't change jobs, as well as the outright slaves.
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nenita 02/19/2009 11:05:00 PM
These heartless people who have treated their fellow human beings with such injustice deserve to rot in jail forever.
