Baguio bet wins Ms. Barkadahan ’23 pageant

 

Ms. Barkadahan 2023 Maricel "Icel" Minez Miranda, Candidate #4,  (center) is flanked by 2nd runner up: Rexcel "Butterfly" Rolan De Jesus (#3) and 1st Runner Up: Melissa "Mels" Sabico Ablao (#11)

Maricel "Icel" Minez Miranda of Baguio City bested 11 other finalists to become the Ms. Barkadahan 2023 in the biggest beauty pageant for OFWs, held last Sunday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Wanchai.

Miranda, 30, won prizes amounting to P500,000 in the return of the biggest pageant for OFWs in Hong Kong after a three-year break due the the Covid-19 pandemic. 

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She took the top prize after going through three phases of the event: opening production number, talent (singing and dancing where the girls performed as two groups), and swimsuit competition, which included the question and answer portion.

Emerging as the pageant’s 1st runner up was Melissa "Mels" Sabico Ablao (Candidate #11) and 2nd runner up was  Rexcel "Butterfly" Rolan De Jesus (Candidate #3).

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Barkadahan sa SmarTone, the sponsor of the pageant, also gave away P500,000 worth of load vouchers in a raffle that had 10 winners from the audience: five winners of P10,000 and one winner each of P25,000, P50,000, P75,000, P100,000, and the grand prize of P200,000.      

The pageant capped a three-month search that began with an audition on Dec. 4, 2022 and was decided by the audience by voting for their favorite candidate with their tickets.

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“With all those who participated here, winners or not, they developed their self-confidence, communication skills, poise, character, overcoming shyness and many others. Total makeover is the result when you join this biggest and longest running pageant,” Barkadahan sa SmarTone said.

Featured in the program was the internet influencer DJ Loonyo, who sang and performed some of the dance moves that made him a TikTok star. He was supported by a host of local Filipino talents, cheered on by a crowd made up of Barkadahan subscribers.

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In  keeping with with the pageant theme of flight, the contestants were in cabin crew outfit in their opening dance number. Alvin Dayrit of Smartone and his two co-hosts were also wearing pilot outfits, the ticket looked like a boarding pass, and the venue was designed to make the audience feel they were in an airplane with all the sound and visual effects.

The pageant began with the candidates, dressed as flight attendants, introducing themselves and explaining their choice of destination.

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Ms Barkadahan Icel’s dream destination is South Korea. “Since I was young I’ve loved watching Korean dramas. And I am a fan of Korean actors and actresses. That’s why I want to meet them in person and see how beautiful their place is,” she said.

Mels, 37 years old who hails from Puerto Princesa, Palawan, chose Canada. “Because it is a multicultural country with a rich diversity and because of the wildlife and no pollution,” she explained.

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Butterfly, 33, of Bacolod City chose Israel “because when it comes to photogenic destinations Israel is the place to go for its historical and natural sites. It is also known as the Holy Land for it is home for some of the world’s holy sites.”

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Filipina fails to have her illegal work conviction overturned

Filipina's case ends at the High Court

A Filipina who questioned the conclusion of a magistrate who found her guilty of working illegally, has failed to convince the High Court to overturn the verdict, for which she was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.

Yolanda Palayon,  a domestic helper, had claimed that Shatin Magistrate Norton Pang erred in concluding that she was illegally working in a car wash in Pat Heung, New Territories, when she was arrested by Immigration officers on July 26, 2021.

Palayon was one of three domestic helpers who were arrested for working in the car wash and charged with breach of conditions of stay, in violation of the Immigration Ordinance. 

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One of them pleaded guilty and had her sentene reduced by a third, while the other was convicted along with Palayon after trial at the Shatin Courts.

Only Palayon appealed her conviction to the High Court, asserting that the magistrate “erred in finding that the prosecution had proved the charge beyond reasonable doubt.”

But Deputy High Court Judge Amanda Jane Woodcock, in a decision dated Dec. 29, 2022, found “no basis to interfere with the magistrate’s findings”.  

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Judge Woodcock summarized the key points that led to the magistrate’s decision: “There was no dispute by the defence that the appellant stood next to a vehicle with a blue towel in her hand.  Where she was found was in a car wash where people pay to have their cars washed and she was observed washing a car.  One of the owners or proprietors was present at the material time.  There was no evidence that she was cleaning the car as a favour or out of friendship.  In any event, the defence evidence was that she was there to prepare food for a party which would not include wiping a car.”

She also cited the testimony of the Immigration officer who arrested Palayon, that she and her co-defendants took their handbags from a cabinet inside the car wash, when the officers asked for their identity cards.

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She added that Magistrate Pang was correct in disregarding as self-serving the testimoney of the lone defense witness, the owner of the car wash, who asserted that the three domestic helpers were in his shop to help prepare food for a party to be held there that evening and not to wash cars.

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“I am satisfied the magistrate fairly and properly considered the issues.  He rejected the evidence of the defence witness with good reason,” Judge Woodcock said.

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High Court rejects Filipina’s appeal against conviction in 2 immigration cases

 

High Court judge confirms Filipina's conviction.

A Filipina’s appeal against conviction for two charges of breach of condition of stay has been dismissed by a Court of First Instance judge who ordered her to now serve her 12-month sentence.

“The appeal is dismissed.  The sentence of the Magistrate stands.  The appellant must return to carry out her sentence forthwith,” said Judge Audrey Campbell-Moffat in a decision released Friday by of the High Court.

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Jasmin Andaya, a former domestic helper and former wife of a Hong Kong resident, had been convicted of overstaying from October 2005 until she was arrested on Jan 2, 2020 in an Immigration raid on a restaurant in Tai Hang, and of illegally taking up employment as an odd job worker in that restaurant.

For the first charge, she was sentenced to 12 months in jail by Magistrate Frances Leung  at the Shatin Magistrates’ Courts; for the second, she was sentenced to three months. Both sentences will run at the same time.

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The judge supported the magistrate’s conclusion that Andaya had overstayed,

“The learned magistrate analyzed the evidence in a simple and straightforward manner….  The appellant, was, as a matter of fact, an over-stayer who was not allowed to work.  There was no evidence before her to suggest otherwise,” Judge Campbell-Moffat said. 

“She found, contrary to the defence case, that the appellant, on her own admission, knew that she had been a visitor in Hong Kong but had overstayed and that she was not allowed to work.”

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She dismissed Andaya’s claim to have paid income taxes to prove that she believed she could lawfully work and that she was allowed to remain after October 2005. “The argument that she had paid salaries tax did not affect her status as a visitor nor her conditions of stay.  She remained in breach of them.,” the judge added.

The case began when Andaya was arrested in a raid by Immigration officers on Jan 2, 2020 on Palki Restaurant on Tsing Fung Street, Tin Hau. She failed to present identity documents but a check with the Immigration Department database showed that she had been overstaying since 2005.

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The Immigration officer who arrested her testified that she admitted she worked at the restaurant as a waitress and said she had done so for less than a year.  She maintained that she was paid $400 per day.

In the recorded interview that followed, where Andaya was assisted by an Ilocano interpreter, she admitted that Immigration refused her application for a dependant visa after she and her husband separated and he refused to sponsor her.

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She thus became a visitor and was allowed to stay in Hong Kong until October 2005.  “I knew I cannot work in Hong Kong.  I should leave before October 2005,” she said in the recording.

She added that she stayed in because she was hoping she and her husband would reconcile. She has  since lost her passport and Hong Kong ID card, and did not replace them,

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Judge Campbell-Moffat also dismissed Andaya’s lawyer’s assertion that because she lied about having worked at the restaurant for less than a year, when she had in fact worked there since 2014, all her other admissions should therefore be treated as lies.

The lawyer did not present evidence or submissions to disprove that she was overstaying from October 2005 onwards, she said.

 “The applicable law is trite.  Section 41 of the IO (Immigration Ordinance), Cap 115 (“s41”), requires the prosecution to prove that the appellant was subject to a condition of stay which was contravened and that the appellant knew of the relevant condition,’ she said.

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2 DH inakusahan ng pagnanakaw ng alahas na may kabuuang $676,000

Ibinalik sa piitan ang dalawang Pilipinang inakusahan ng pananakaw ng alahas. (File)

 

Dalawang Pilipinang domestic helper ang humarap sa magkahiwalay na korte ngayon matapos akusahang nagnakaw ng mga alahas na nagkakahalaga ng $384,000 at $292,000 mula sa kani-kanilang mga amo, at ipiniit hanggang sa susunod nilang pagdinig sa papasok na taon.

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Si Ligaya Banisal. 42 taong gulang, ay kinasuhan ng pulis ng pagnanakaw ng 18 pulseras na ginto, dalawang singsing, apat na singsing na ginto, at siyam na kuwintas na nagkakahalaga ng $384,000 at pag-aari ng kanyang among nakatira sa Lohas Park sa Tseung Kwan O.

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Ang pagnanakaw ay nangyari umano sa pagitan ng January 2021 at Oct. 16, 2022.

Hiningi ng taga-usig sa pagdinig kanina sa Kwun Tong Court na ipagpaliban ang pagdinig sa kaso upang mabigyan ng dagdag na panahon ang mga pulis na mag-imbestiga pa at mabawi ang mga ninakaw na alahas mula sa sanglaan.

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Itinakda ni Magistrate Minnie Wat sa Feb. 7, 2023 ang susunod na pagdinig.

Dahil walang hiling ang akusado na palayain siya sa bisa ng piyansa, ibinalik siya sa kulungan.

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Samantala, si Marivic Hitalia, 35 taong gulang, ay kinasuhan sa Shatin Court ng pagnanakaw ng pitong kuwintas na ginto, 14 na gintong pulseras, tatlong gintong singsing, at isang pares ng gintong hikaw.

Ang mga alahas, na nagkakahalaga ng $292,000, ay ninakaw umano ni Hitalia sa mga among taga-Ma On Shan mula Aug. 21 hanggang Oct. 28.

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Ipinagpaliban ni Acting Principal Magistrate David Cheung sa Jan. 31 ang susunod na pagdinig. 

Inutos din niyang ibalik si Hitalia sa kulungan.

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2 Pilipinang may kasong drug trafficking kulong habang dinidinig ang kaso

 

Hindi pumayag ang Magistrate sa Kowloon City na  makalayang pansamantala ang dalawang Pilipina.

Dalawang Pilipinang may kasong drug trafficking ang ibinalik sa piitan ngayon matapos ipinagpaliban ang paglilitis laban sa kanila sa Kowloon City Magistracy.

Si Chamberlyn Cadelina, 39 taong gulang, ay nahaharap sa tatlong kaso.

Ang una ay drug trafficking, na inihain laban sa kanya matapos siyang maaresto kasama ang isang lalaking Bangladeshi sa isang silid sa  Mirador Mansion sa Nathan Road noong Nov. 15 at nasamsam sa kanila ang 32 gramo ng methamphetamine hydrochloride o shabu at iba pang bagay na gagawing ebidensiya laban sa kanila.

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Kinasuhan rin siya ng pagkakaroon ng lason na kasama sa Part 1 ng Poisons List, na paglabag sa Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance, at overstaying dahil ayon sa kanyang visa, dapat noong 2017 pa siya umalis sa Hong Kong.

Ang Bangladeshi na kasama niyang nahuli, si Amit Foysal, 40, ay kinasuhan din ng drug trafficking at pagkakaroon ng Part 1 poison.

Si Foysal ay hindi nakarating sa pagdinig ngayon dahil may sakit, kaya ipagpaliban ni Acting Principal Magistrate Peony Wong ang kanyang pagdinig sa Dec. 2.

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Dahil dito, hiningi ng abogado ni Cadelina na payagan siyang mag-piyansa upang hindi siya maapektuhan ng pagkaantala ng kaso, dahil hindi malaman kung hanggang kailan mananatili sa ospital ang kasamahan niya sa kaso.

Itinaas niya sa $3,000 ang alok na piyansa ni Cadelina mula sa $2,000. Sinabi rin nito na nangako si Cadelina na mag-report sa istasyon ng pulis araw-araw at hindi aalis sa tinitirhan niya.

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Pero tumanggi si Magistrate Wong dahil mabigat ang kaso, malakas ang ebidensiya laban sa kanya at overstayer siya noon pang 2017.

Ibinalik siya sa kulungan hanggang sa susunod ng pagdinig sa Jan 12.

Samantala, pinagpalban din ang paglilitis ng kasong drug trafficking ni Rhea Nerissa Maristela, 26 taong gulang at nagtatrabaho bilang waitress, dahil sa hiling ng pulisya ng karagdagang anim na lingo upang suriin ang lahat ng drogang nakuha sa kanya nang arestuhin siya sa Nathan Road sa Tsim Sha Tsui noong Oct. 13.

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Sinabi ng taga-usig na hindi pa natatapos ang pagsusuri ng pinaghihinalaang droga sa laboratory ng gobyerno, kaya hiniling niyang ituloy na lang sa susunod na taon ang pagdinig.

Pinagbigyan naman ito ni Magistrate Wong, at itinakda ang susunod na pagdinig sa Jan. 6.

Dahil hindi niya hiniling na payagan siyang mag-piyansa, ibinalik si Maristela  sa kulungan.

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Matatandaan na dalawang beses siyang nag-alok ng piyansa – $5,000 noong una at $7,000 sa ikalawa -- upang maalagaan niya ang kanyang dalawang anak, pero tinanggihan ng korte dahil sa bigat ng kasong kaharap niya (basahin ang naunang report dito: https://www.sunwebhk.com/2022/10/korte-tinanggihan-ang-dinagdagang-alok.html).

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