By Daisy CL Mandap
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| The distressed worker was taken to Bethune House in Jordan, before being taken away by ambulance to hospital |
If you see someone obviously in need of medical help, call 999 immediately.
This was the advice given by Edwina Antonio, executive director of the Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge, after her group was called to assist a Filipina domestic worker who appeared to have tried to hang herself with a rope Wednesday night.
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Antonio said the Filipina had obvious ligature marks around
her neck, had bloodshot eyes, reddish blood clots on her face, and was
disheveled and incoherent when taken to the shelter in
The worker’s appearance was consistent with her story that
she tried to hang herself with a skipping rope the previous night. But why she
did that, and what happened after her failed attempt to kill herself, were not
clear, as she kept crying.
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Despite this, several Filipinas who reportedly saw the distressed worker inside a Philippine products store in Mei Foo market did not immediately call for help. It took Maricel, who had passed by around 4pm, to get help.
After contacting Dolores Balladares-Pelaez, she managed to
get another Filipina to bring the worker, whose initials are L.V. based on the
name she gave them, to Bethune House.
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Antonio said they should have called emergency assistance immediately.
“Kapag ganyan ang nakita nila, dapat itawag na kaagad sa 999 kasi baka may criminal angle na, at kailangan agad ng tulong ng pasyente,” said Antonio.
(If they see anyone looking like that, they should call 999 immediately because there could be already a criminal angle, and the patient needs immediate help).
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| Antonio (with glasses) has yet to get the full details of what happened to L.V. |
Antonio said that in-between sobs, L.V. gave her age as as 53, and said she is a native of Ilocos. She has been with her current employer for nearly six years. But for some reasons that were not clear, she asked not to be brought back to her workplace.
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All that the distressed worker had with her was a wallet and an Octopus card to which was attached a copy of her employer’s HKID card, which identified her as an airport staff, and had her phone number written on it,
After calling up the worker’s employer, Bethune staff called
emergency services through 999, and had the worker admitted to
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Antonio remains puzzled by her talk with the Chinese female employer, who reportedly admitted seeing the rope marks on her helper’s neck earlier that day, but did nothing about it. Instead, the employer said she allowed the helper to leave the house after she asked for permission to buy a SIM card.
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When asked what she intended to do about her helper of nearly six years who did not want to return to her house, the employer reportedly said she would call back with a computation of how much she should give as terminal pay. She never did.
Maricel said that during their earlier talk in Mei Foo Market, L.V. claimed to have been spied on by her employer, who reportedly took all the data from her phone. That was the reason she was at the store buying a new SIM card, said the helper. She also showed them her smashed phone, saying it was her employer who did it.
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Strangely, she also told them that she switched HKIDs with her employer, that was why she didn’t have her own ID card with her.
During her interview with Antonio, the worker also claimed her employer did not allow her to leave the house for months. However, this did not explain why she was allowed to go out just to buy a SIM card, and use an Octopus card with a copy of her employer’s HKID and phone number on it.
Antonio hopes to dig deeper into the case with help from the Philippine Consulate.
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