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| Shatin Law Courts building |
Two Filipinos avoided jail Wednesday, Mar 27, after they pleaded guilty to illegal work-- doing house renovation in Discovery Bay, which is prohibited under their condition of stay as holders of the foreign domestic helper visa.
Magistrate David Chum convicted
Zaldy Materum and Bruce Oliver Vitaliano of breach of condition of stay, a
violation of the Immigration Ordinance, and sentenced each of them to two months
imprisonment, but suspended for 24 months.
With the suspended term, the
two will not need to serve their sentences if they do not reoffend
within the next two years. However, Magistrate Chum warned that if they commit
an offense within the period, they will have to serve the jail term in addition
to the penalty for the new offense.
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| PINDUTIN PARA DETALYE |
The two were charged after
they were arrested while doing renovation work in a flat in Woodlands Court of
Discovery Bay last Feb. 7.
They pleaded guilty, but
their defense lawyer asked Chum to consider the special circumstances which
would make a custodial sentence too harsh in their one-off case.
For one, the lawyer said, the
owner of the flat they were working on is a son of Materum’s employer, who
lived nearby. “You can see the dynamics involved. You can’t say no,” the lawyer
said.
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| TAWAG NA! |
Vitaliano, on the other hnd,
was working on the flat only to help his friend and was not paid anything, he
added.
Despite the case, he said, the employers of both were willing to take them back in.
Chum said that what the two did was serious. “Your doing renovation work deprives others of work,” he said.
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| PINDUTIN ITO |
But he noted that Materum
and Vitaliano had been in Hong Kong for eight and 12 years, respectively, and
their records had been clean.
He chose a starting point of
three months’ jail, discounted it by a third because of the guilty pleas, and
suspended imprisonment for two years.
Meanwhile, in another case, the prosecutor withdrew its case against asylum seeker Jerrybell Panganiban for overstaying her visa for one year on June 1, 2022, to give way to her request for a judicial review by the High Court of the government's decision rejecting her torture claim.
Her claim for non-refoulement or against being sent back home was earlier denied by both the Imigration Department and the Torture Claims Adjudication Board.
Magistrate Chum also cancelled
the arrest warrant issued earlier against Panganiban for failing to show up in
a prevous hearing.
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| PADALA NA! |
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