Case filed by kin of FDH in Mid-Levels death fall dismissed

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 Mission for Migrant Workers. But when interviewed on the phone, Antonio said another non-government organization had taken over the case, and she was not aware why it was no longer pursued.

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Diola, a native of Palo, Leyte, fell to her death on Oct 23, 2014 from the residential tower on Robinson Road where Cheung lived. It took the police a year to rule out foul play and classify the case as “death by falling”.

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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 Hong Kong law.

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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 Hong Kong as a domestic worker in 2014.

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 Beijing where the Filipina was made to work for about a month without a contract.

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Diola was taken afterwards to Macau by the employer’s grown-up son to wait for her Hong Kong visa there. She finally got it in September, 2014, after staying in the enclave for two months.

A month later, Diola was found lifeless beside the swimming pool in Cheung's residential block. She was just 26.

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