Filipina DH jailed for 4 weeks for hurting 3-yr-old ward

By Vir B. Lumicao

A Tuen Mun magistrate reminded a Filipino domestic helper that Hong Kong law forbids assaulting a child, as he sentenced her to four weeks in jail on Jan. 7 for slapping her three-year-old ward’s hands and hitting him on the butt with a broom.

Magistrate Jacky Ip imposed the sentence on Eden Inabiohan, a single mother with a young son, two weeks after she pleaded guilty to four counts of “ill treatment of a child.”

A duty lawyer assigned to defend the helper asked the magistrate for a lenient sentence, saying no injury was found on the child during the two days that doctors in Tuen Mun hospital had examined him.

The helper was said to be remorseful, and had been used to a practice in the Philippines where parents could spank their children for misbehaving.

“But this in Hong Kong, where assaulting a child is a serious offense,” Magistrate Ip said.

He gave only the standard discount of a third of the prescribed sentence for her guilty plea.

Inabiohan was arrested by police on Nov 26 after her female employer reported that her son had been assaulted by the maid a day earlier.

Investigators who reviewed the CCTV footage in the employer’s home saw the helper slapping the boy’s hands and butt, and then hitting him on his butt with a broom.

The maid said she lost her temper when she heard the boy use foul language after she scolded him for scattering food.

Inabiohan had been working for the employer since February last year. It was her first time to work outside of the Philippines.


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Pinay, employer in online sex case charged with money laundering

By Vir B. Lumicao 

The Filipinas were granted bail at Eastern court

Two Filipina domestic workers charged with taking part in an online sex-for-pay service allegedly operated by their employer have been finally freed on bail, nearly eight months after their arrest.

But one of the helpers, Jo-an Palpal-latoc, has been charged along with her employer, named only as Ms Wong, with laundering about $20 million in alleged earnings from the illicit operation.

The individual counts of “living on the earnings of prostitution of others” against Palpal-latoc and Gallego were also amended to “conspiracy to live on the earnings of prostitution of others”.

Magistrate Peter Law granted bail of $500 each to Palpal-latoc, 40, and Jeanette Gallego, 47, on Monday, Jan 7, after giving the prosecution a scolding for letting the case drag on while the two were in custody.

Wong, 69, has been out on bail, along with her 72-year-old sister and a male relative after they were arrested in a police raid on May 17 last year on her flat on the 43rd floor of Tavistock II residential block on Tregunter Path, Mid-Levels.

The two maids were also arrested as they were found manning a number of dating websites offering sex to foreign tourists, police said.

Prosecutors said the registered company that operated the sex-for-pay service was housed in Wong’s flat. They later said bank ledgers found in the flat showed earnings from the operation went to Wong’s bank accounts.

Investigators also found a bank account owned by Palpal-latoc, with some amount in it, but they didn’t find any account owned by Gallego, so she was not charged with money laundering.

The two helpers broke into tears after hearing Magistrate Law say they would be released on bail.

Outside the courthouse, they said they thought they would be freed for good because they had already been in remand for nearly eight months.

“Ang sabi ng abogado sa amin noong Biyernes ay pagkatapos ng hearing ngayon ay makakauwi na kami,” said Gallego.

The two were later taken by an officer of the Consulate to a shelter run by the Overseas Worker Welfare Office, which was given to the court as their temporary address.

Law adjourned the hearing until Jan 28 for further investigation and legal advice,

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Pinay’s Christmas vacation ruined by surprise termination

By Daisy CL Mandap

A Filipina domestic worker got the shock of her life when, soon after she boarded the plane for her flight home on Dec. 24, she received a text message from her employer saying she was being dismissed for “habitual negligence.”

J. R. told a migrant support group said that she had no inkling that her employer was unhappy with her work, and had planned to dismiss her.

She expressed fear that she may not be allowed to enter Hong Kong on Jan. 3, when she’s supposed to report back for work.



Told about her predicament, Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre immediately gave assurance that J.R. should be able to return to Hong Kong and file a labor claim against her employer.

“Under current protocols, she will be allowed in, and allowed to file a case at the Labor Department,” said Labatt dela Torre in a message.



J.R.’s Chinese employer said in his text that he was “resigning” from his employment contract with the Filipina helper effective Dec. 24, and was not giving any notice “under chapter 8 of the Labour Code”, by which he apparently meant the termination was for reasonable grounds.

The employer cited four instances of J.R.’s alleged “habitual negligence,” the first of which supposedly happened on Jul 16, when the helper allegedly “leave children at the door of shop.”
The three other cases of J.R.’s alleged negligence were:



*”not optimistic about children and let her falling down from hight (sic) chair, which supposedly happened on Nov. 18;
*”ignore the reasonable requirements of the child like wash hands or go toilet etc” and
* ignore the employer’s reasonable work requirements, and many times advised that there is no improvement.”



Among those who extended help to J.R. through online chats was Rodelia Villar, founder of the social media group, Domestic Workers Corner.  Villar advised J.R. to immediately send a message asking for help and advice to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and the migrant support organization, Mission for Migrant Workers.



She also suggested that J.R. respond to her employer’s text and deny the four grounds of negligence leveled against her.

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HK woman to be charged with giving fake documents to 2 Pinays applying for UK jobs

By Vir B. Lumicao 

A Hong Kong woman who allegedly provided two Filipina domestic workers fake documents to support their application for work visa to the United Kingdom two years ago will be charged in court on Jan. 17, prosecutors said.

The new development led to a delay until May 6 of the sentencing of Criselda Bantasan, 31; and Cristy Par, 47; who have pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to use copies of the “false instruments.”

They were originally set to be sentenced today, Jan 4 at the District Court.

“I expect that the world will be happy for another adjournment,” Judge Li Chi-ho said after the prosecutor disclosed the arrest of Chan and applied for a delay in the sentencing.

Only Bantasan appeared in court on Jan 4.

When the hearing got under way, the prosecutor updated Judge Li on the developments in the case since the last hearing on Oct 4 last year.

She said the prosecution obtained further statements from Bantasan and Par that led to the arrest of Chan.

The prosecutor said that last November, the defendants identified Chan in a video of the alleged Hong Kong link of a Manila-based visa scam.

Chan will be charged in Eastern Court and prosecution estimated it will take two months before the case is elevated to the District Court.

During the Oct. 5 hearing, defense lawyer Melville Boase asked for an adjournment to Jan 4, saying there is a Manila-based syndicate that offers Filipinos here spurious jobs in Britain and supplies them with fake documents to support their applications.

Boase described Bantasan as a victim who had been helping police since day one and continues to do so to nail down the syndicate members who conned her.

He said the single mother, who has a 13-year-old son in senior high school, used PhP300,000 of her savings to pay a recruitment agency in Manila and Chan, for the work visa to Britain.

Par’s lawyer said his client also cooperated with the police and was willing to identify Chan, who at the time had already been arrested.

The court was told that after arresting Chan, the police raided her flat and seized more forged documents. But Chan’s partner, a black man named Ronnie, avoided arrest by going to the Philippines.

Ronnie allegedly provided Bantasan and Par with the forged documents, particularly the passports and bank statements of their employers, that were believed to have been fabricated in Manila.

The two women presented those documents to staff of the United Kingdom Visa Processing Centre at Leighton Centre in Causeway Bay on separate dates in 2016.

Boase said at the time that Bantasan was enticed by a Filipina helper in Hong Kong surnamed Chua to apply through the Manila agency for a helper job in Britain that paid 1,000 pounds a month.

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