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| Three workers forced to pay the illegal loan complain to Labor Attache Romulo |
By Vir B. Lumicao
A group of newly arrived domestic workers are celebrating
after learning that they no longer have to pay an illegal $2,938
loan made out for each of them by three employment agencies in Hong Kong and
their Manila counterparts.
The workers said a staff at the Philippine Overseas Labor
Office called up one of them yesterday, Aug 1, to say “Sir Tony”, referring to Tony Chan,
managing director of Pacific Jet Consultants, had waived a loan from finance
company Mutual Honour (Hong Kong ) Ltd that
they were told to pay.
The backdown came after The SUN published a front-page story
about the illicit loan.
However, Labor Attaché Nida Romulo said today, Aug. 2, that she
was not aware of the purported loan waiver. She said she did not want to
speculate on the report and preferred to hear about it from the workers
themselves.
Pacific Jet, Sacred Heart International Consultants and Waytech
Consultants, which occupy adjacent rooms in Cameron
Commercial Building
in Tsimshatsui, were named by at least
19 workers as the Hong Kong counterparts of the Philippine agencies that
deployed them to Hong Kong between Apr 1 and
May 31.
Three of the workers approached Romulo on Sunday, Jul 29, to
complain about the Php16,000 loans each that they were allegedly made to take
out from Caezar Pacific Money Lending Co Ltd in Makati
so they could fly to Hong Kong .
On their arrival here, Chan allegedly told them to repay the
loan in two installments of $1,469 each at 7-11 convenience stores (or a total
of Php19,671 at current exchange rate for a 22% markup) and issued them payment
cards that they were to use for that purpose.
The loan was supposed to pay for their further training on
arrival in Hong Kong , but the workers said no
such training took place.
Apart from the loan, the workers said they were also made to
pay placement and training fees by their agencies in Manila amounting to at
least Php85,000 (HK$12,686) each. Two workers from Cebu said they were charged
a training fee of Php25,000 (HK$3,731)
twice, once in that city, and another when they went to Manila
prior to taking their flight to Hong Kong .
Philippine laws provide that the cost of recruiting overseas
Filipino workers should all be borne by the employer, while in Hong Kong, the
agency commission should be no more than 10% of the worker’s first monthly
salary, which in this case should just be $441.
Amendments made to the Labour Ordinance which took effect in
February this year provide a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment and a
fine of $350,000 in overcharging cases.
Romulo asked the workers to submit proofs of payments and
execute affidavits so she could act on their complaints. Her staff also called
up Chan about the complaint and the agency owner suggested a meeting with them
and Romulo on Tuesday. But the workers instead pushed for a meeting this
Sunday, Aug. 5, as that’s when most of them are off work.
But late on Wednesday the worker reportedly contacted by
POLO staff Medith Chaneco relayed to the other complainants the information
about Chan’s offer to cancel the loans.
“Tumatawag po ang POLO. Si Ma’am Medith, sabi niya hindi na
daw kami dapat magbayad sa loan. Nagpasa na ng waiver si Sir Tony (Chan) para hindi
na daw kami magbayad pa. Salamat po. Dahil sa inyo kaya namin nalagpasan ang problema.
Salamat po talaga,” one of the workers said in a private message to The SUN.
But another posted cautioned: “We need to have the waiver so
we have proof that the loan’s been waived,” said another.
The group expressed concern for a batch of about 18 other
workers who are still in Manila waiting for
their flight to Hong Kong .
They said the workers are now being told to pay cash up
front for the extra charge, or they would’t be able to fly out to Hong Kong .
