By Vir B. Lumicao
Diola left behind her common-law-husband Jose and their son, Vivejo |
A compensation claim filed by the heirs of a Filipina domestic worker who fell to her death from her employer’s Mid-Levels apartment more than six years ago was dismissed on Friday, Apr 16, after neither party appeared for the court hearing.
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District Court judge Katina Levy ordered the case dropped after the common-law husband of the deceased, Ruby Ann Diola, or his representatives, failed to show up for the hearing. Also a no-show was employer Cheung Yeuk Lee.
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It is not clear if the case could be refiled by claimants Virginio V. Jose and Vivejo, his son with Diola.
The father-and-son were represented in court initially by
Edwina Antonio, case officer of the
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Diola, a native of Palo,
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During a hearing of the case in June 2017, Judge Levy
said she was not sure if Antonio had the capacity to represent Jose under
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The judge also said Cheung should have been at the hearing because she was the employer of the deceased, and had been fined $5,000 for failing to take out a domestic helper’s insurance on Diola.
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Diola lived with Jose and their son in Lingayen, where they
operated a mineral water business, until she came to work in
She terminated her contract with her first employer in May 2014 and was hired by Cheung through an agency.
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According to the statement made by 67-year-old Jose to the
police, Diola told him in phone conversations that she was taken by Cheung to
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Diola was taken afterwards to Macau by the employer’s
grown-up son to wait for her
A month later, Diola was found lifeless beside the swimming pool in Cheung's residential block. She was just 26.
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