RP envoy charged in US

By Ninotchka Rosca
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:01:00 07/06/2008

NEW YORK -- AMBASSADOR Lauro Liboon Baja Jr., who headed the Philippine Mission to the United Nations from 2003 to 2007, is one of four defendants in a civil complaint alleging trafficking, forced labor, peonage and racketeering.

The case was filed on June 24 before Judge Victor Marrero of the New York Southern District Court. The co-accused are the ambassador’s wife Norma Castro Baja, his daughter Maria Elizabeth Baja Facundo and the Baja-owned Labaire International Travel Inc.

The complaint was filed by 39-year-old Marichu Suarez Baoanan through lawyers Aaron Mendelsohn of Troutman Sanders and Ivy O. Suriyopas of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Ambassador Baja, 71, was also president of the UN Security Council in June 2004. AMBASSADOR Lauro Liboon Baja Jr., who headed the Philippine Mission to the United Nations from 2003 to 2007, is one of four defendants in a civil complaint alleging trafficking, forced labor, peonage and racketeering. The case was filed on June 24 before Judge Victor Marrero of the New York Southern District Court. The co-accused are the ambassador’s wife Norma Castro Baja, his daughter Maria Elizabeth Baja Facundo and the Baja-owned Labaire International Travel Inc. The complaint was filed by 39-year-old Marichu Suarez Baoanan through lawyers Aaron Mendelsohn of Troutman Sanders and Ivy O. Suriyopas of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Ambassador Baja, 71, was also president of the UN Security Council in June 2004.The rest of the story.