TELEVISION host and actress Amy Perez’s maid was jailed, after she was caught in an entrapment operation with P250,000 worth of accessories, money, groceries and clothes from the celebrity and her family.
Perez, Maria Armida Parale Sarte Perez-Castillo in real life, narrated the incident in her ABS-CBN morning show on Friday.
She identified the maid, who had worked for her for four years, as Melrose Besano, who also goes by the names Mel Besano and Rose Bulibuli.
Perez said Besano, 40, had sought permission to go on an 11-day vacation as she was about to get married.
Thrilled over her maid’s forthcoming wedding, Perez said she gave Besano a half-month’s salary in advance.
Shortly after the maid left, they found out that Besano took P12,000 in village association dues entrusted to her. With the revelation, Perez said their neighbors’ maids came forward and said Besano owed them money. She also reportedly owed money to the village laundry shop.
Perez and her husband, TV reporter Carlo Castillo, searched their house and found out that three of their watches worth P260,000 were missing.
An entrapment was set where Besano would meet with another maid to borrow money.
Besano was said to have later admitted to the theft under police custody.
Perez said her maid’s fiancé was a jeepney driver. Besano also had three foreign “special friends,” she said.
Besano, for her part, said she did not benefit entirely from the things she had stolen.
“I have a boyfriend and I gave him P4,000 a month. They didn’t know. I was afraid they’d get mad at me. I didn’t tell them,” she was quoted as saying in Filipino.
Besano asked forgiveness from the Perez-Castillo family. “I admit it. I ask forgiveness from them and I regret what I did. I will accept any punishment,” she said.
Besano is facing a charge for qualified theft, a non-bailable offense.
Police are appealing to Besano’s other victims to file charges as well.