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UPDATE: Long-term Filipino prisoner is back home after 26 years

Posted on 15 October 2019 No comments

Mario delos Reyes, who was freed after 26 years behind bars in Stanley Prison, was seen off at Hong Kong International Airport on Oct. 22 by Consul Paul Saret, who also checked him in for his flight and and handed over some farewell gifts from friends. Mario was met in Manila by his wife, Gigi, and two of their three children. Mario now spends his time in the family home in Nueva Ecija receiving family and friends, writing, and catching up with modern technology.

A week before his release, Delos Reyes was received by Consul General Raly Tejada in his office

Mario is set for releaseBy Vir B. Lumicao

Mario delos Reyes, released recently from Hong Kong’s maximum security Stanley Prison but detained again at the Castle Peak Immigration Centre in Tuen Mun, may be flying home soon.

An Immigration officer who escorted Delos Reyes, 62, to the Consulate on Tuesday, Oct 15, to secure his one-way travel document told Consulate officers he would confirm the schedule the next day and inform the PCG.

The officer was responding to Consul Paulo Saret's query on when he could hand Delos Reyes the presents from well-wishers, including The SUN, at the airport.

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Delos Reyes went to the Consulate around 2pm, which will allow him to return to his country after spending 26 years in Stanley following his conviction in 1994 on a charge of conspiracy to murder.

Saret, head of the assistance to national section, signed the travel document right beside Delos Reyes, who was having a late lunch of KFC friend chicken at ATN. He was accompanied by two Filipina detainees at CIC and three Immigration escorts.

Consul Paulo Saret says PCG took only minutes to issue the travel document

It took ATN only a few minutes to issue Delos Reyes the travel document, said Saret.

After his lunch, he was invited to the office of Consul General Raly Tejada, who wished him well for his release from prison.

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The visit to the Consulate was Delos Reyes’ first travel outside CIC since his transfer there upon his release from Stanley on Oct 5, he said. He was visibly cheerful to be with Consulate staff and other Filipinos who were wishing him well.

But, asked how he felt after his release from Stanley, his answer was blunt: “Eto, galit, dahil hindi ako pinauwi agad nang lumabas ako.”

Delos Reyes with friends, DSWD attache Beth Dy and ATN's Saret and Arnel Deluna

He said his family prepared a welcome party for him at their home in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, but were disappointed when they learned that he would not be flying back to Manila immediately.

“Akala nila ay makakauwi na ako, kasi wala na lang akong deportation order,” he said.

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He said aside from the travel document, he is awaiting his release papers from Immigration’s word regarding a minor error in the typing of his family name.

He said on his Hong Kong ID, “delos” was spelled as one word, but in his Immigration records it was “de los”. He put the blame on the Hong Kong government for the mistake.

Delos Reyes, a contributor to The SUN even while behind bars, said he was not sure when his flight would be.It still depends on the Immigration Department, which will provide his air ticket, a PCG officer said..

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Associate of licensed employment agency convicted of overcharging helper

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Code of Practice for agencies forbid collecting more than the allowed commission

An associate of a licensed employment agency has been convicted and fined $3,000 in Kowloon City Court for overcharging a foreign domestic helper, the Labour Department said.

The Employment Agencies Administration investigated and prosecuted the associate of Best Ka Hei Employment Agency in Kowloon City after the helper complained she had been charged excessive commission.

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The EAA gathered sufficient evidence to prove the offence, and Labour prosecuted the associate.

Hong Kong law states that a licensee or his associate, or a person purporting to act as such as licensee or associate, is not allowed to collect from a job seeker any fees other than a commission, which must not exceed 10% of the job seeker’s first monthly salary.

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The Labour Department reminded agencies to operate in full compliance with the law and the Code of Practice for Employment Agencies at all times. Failure to do so may lead to prosecution and/or revocation of licence.

The Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2018 that took effect on Feb 9, 2018, has raised the maximum penalty for overcharging job seekers to a fine of $350,000 and imprisonment for three years.

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For enquiries or complaints about unlicensed operation or overcharging by agencies, call the EAA at 2115 3667, or visit its office at Unit 906, 9/F, One Mong Kok Road Commercial Centre, 1 Mong Kok Road, Kowloon.

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Helper in drug trial says she received parcel for ‘bisexual’ Pinay

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By Vir B. Lumicao

The accused Filipina says she accepted the parcel containing drugs for a 'bisexual' volleyball player

A domestic helper who is being tried for drug trafficking in the High Court said she did not know a DHL parcel that a “bisexual” fellow Filipina had asked her to receive contained 237 grams of methamphetamine valued at $334,530.

Defendant Analyn de Leon took the witness stand on Oct. 14 when she appeared at her trial on a charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug before Judge Remedios D’Almada.

Earlier, Customs officer Lau Tik-yee, gave evidence on the events that led to the arrest of De Leon on May 4 during which he posed as a DHL man to deliver to her a parcel from Benin in Africa that contained the illegal drug.

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The prosecution said De Leon was a last-minute recipient of the drug parcel that was sent to her employer’s address at Yoho Midtown estate in Yuen Long in May last year.

De Leon, on questioning by her counsel Oliver Davies, denied she ever used drugs in Hong Kong or back in the Philippines. She denied having any connections with drug suppliers or syndicates anywhere.

De Leon said she received the parcel at the request of Filipina fellow volleyball player named Adelaida whom she met at a one-day friendly league in Kowloon about three months before the delivery of the parcel.

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She said Adelaida, who she described as a bisexual woman, allegedly said she was expecting a parcel containing a pair of shoes and a garment ordered from an online trader that was meant for another person.

When Davies asked De Leon if she had the chance to inspect the contents of the parcel, she said she did not bother to check because its wrapping had already been opened and it looked like rubbish. She said she didn’t know or think that there was drug in the parcel.

During cross-examination by Prosecutor Ken Ng, De Leon was asked about the long list of voice calls, chats and messages that she had with both Adelaida and “New” on two separate cell phones from Apr 13 to the evening just before the delivery of the parcel.

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Ng asked her who New was, with whom De Leon had received and made calls as well as chatted on Whatsapp and on regular phone line. The defendant said New and Adelaida were one and the same person.

The defendant said Adelaida requested her to receive the parcel on her behalf in the last week of April 2018 because she would be in the Philippines on the expected delivery date.

De Leon said she agreed because her employer knew that she was into online business ordering merchandise from Zalora which she passed on to her friends at a mark-up. She said her employers were also ordering goods from the online store.

She said her orders were usually delivered to her boarding house but this time she had the parcel delivered to her employers’ house.

The trial continues.

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Helpers see LET as key to their teaching ambition

Posted on 14 October 2019 No comments

Aspiring teachers (from left) Lorna Escropulo, Mercedes Tesoro and Marlyn Bautista after the teachers exam.

By Vir B. Lumicao

Nothing beats being a teacher imparting knowledge to young students in her own country. This is according to former school teachers who are now aspiring to return to the classrooms from their current domestic jobs in Hong Kong.

Year after year, this seems to be the general view of those who take the Licensure Examination for Teachers administered annually by the Professional Regulation Commission for Hong Kong-based OFWs.

On Sept 29, about 470 education degree holders sat for the LET at Delia Memorial School-Hip Wo in Kwun Tong, placing their hope in the exam as their way to fulfilling that dream.

Mercedes Tesoro, Gemma Musni and Juliet Pedida, who sat on a park bench to have their late lunch after taking the examination for elementary teachers, said they would return to Philippine classrooms to teach again once they pass and secure a professional license.

Tesoro, 48, a kindergarten teacher for eight years before she came to Hong Kong in 2017, said she was forced by circumstance to come and work here as she could no longer teach in a public school because she didn’t have a professional license.

Since 2015, the Department of Education has required all kindergarten teachers to be board passers, so she was the 28th in her town to lose her job.

Tesoro would not say how many times she took the licensure exam, just “madami na po”, and this year was her second try in Hong Kong. But she expected to pass this year, given the ease with which she finished the General Education component.

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Musni, 38, came here two years ago after teaching for several years also in kindergarten in Pampanga. Like Tesoro, she was hit by the need to pass the board. This was her first time to take the exam and she was looking forward to hurdle it and return to her family.

She said she was forced to work abroad as she could no longer bear to see her children crying everyday, asking for PhP5 for their “baon”, a small amount she could not afford to give when she could no longer teach.

“Mga pinsan may kinakain, ako lang talaga ang walang maibigay. Napakahirap talaga ang loobin ng ina. Nakakaawa,” she said.

Juliet Pedida, a 34-year-old woman from Leyte, came to Hong Kong after graduating from college almost 10 years ago. She said she envied neighbors who had OFW family members. Now she is ready to go home and teach depending on the results of the exam.

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So is Evelyn Ison, 46, a farmer’s wife who has been in Hong Kong for nearly five years. The BS Elementary Education graduate said she has no teaching experience.

Her determination to return home and teach is fueled by her desire to be with her two children, a 6-year-old boy and a girl, 4.

For Lorna Escropulo, 43, this was her third time to sit for the exam, hoping to take advantage of the government’s SPIMS program, or Sa Pinas Ikaw ang Ma’am/Sir, that offers teaching jobs for OFWs who pass the LET.

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Another domestic worker who dreams of returning to the classroom is 38-year-old Marlyn Bautista from Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, who will be teaching high school students if she hurdles this year’s exam. Before coming to Hong Kong in 2010, she taught in kindergarten for two years.

The desire to go home and teach also consumes Pema Tema, a former private elementary teacher for several years before she decided to go abroad and work as a domestic helper.

In the first place, Tepan said her leaving the teaching job was not primarily due to the meager salary but, she admits, because of her insecurities and professional rivalry with her husband, who is also a teacher.

This time, if she passes the LET, she promises to go back to teaching.

Early beneficiaries of SPIMS, a joint program of the Department of Education and Culture, Department of Labor and Employment and Philippine Normal University, have successfully reintegrated into the local workforce by returning to the teaching job.

One of them, Grace Shiela Padua, is now happily teaching and looking after her two young sons in Camarines Sur, after saying goodbye to her domestic work in Hong Kong in October 2016. Hundreds more in this city are expected to follow in her footsteps.

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