Lulong sa tong-its

Anim na taon sa amo si Marissa nang bigla siyang ma-terminate dahil napuno na ang amo sa pag-uwi niya ng madaling araw mula sa day-off, at kung minsan ay inaabot pa siya ng Lunes.

Aminado naman si Marissa na marami siyang naging pagkakamali sa trabaho at lagi siyang iniintindi ng amo at pinapaalalahan, kaya hindi niya akalain na masasagad din ito.



Maluwag pa naman sana siya sa trabaho dahil 11 at 13 taon na ang kanyang mga alaga at hindi na kailangan tutukan, bukod pa sa may driver sila na tagahatid-sundo sa eskuwela.

Ang naging problema ni Marisaa ay ang pagkalulong niya sa tong-its.

Tuwing walang pasok ay maghapon silang naglalaro ng mga kaibigan.

Hindi bababa ang taya sa $1,500 tuwing Linggo kaya kapag sunod-sunod ang talo niya ay nangungutang siya, hanggang mabaon na siya nang mabaon.



Nakatanggap man siya ng bayad para sa long service at isang buwang suweldo kapalit ng abiso ay hindi pa rin ito sapat na ipambayad sa kanyang mga utang.

Nakiusap siya ng husto sa amo at nangakong magbabago ngunit buo na ang desisyon nito.



Dahil nasa kolehiyo na ang mga anak ni Marissa ay kailangan niyang makakakuha muli ng trabaho bago matapos ang 14 araw na palugit niya.

Ang payo niya sa mga kapwa OFW, ingatan na huwag malulong sa bisyo dahil ang trabaho ang tiyak na masasakripisyo ng dahil dito. Huwag ding abusuhin ang kabaitan ng amo.

Si Marissa ay 48 taong gulang, may asawa at dalawang anak, at taga Bulacan. Dati siyang namamasukan sa Tai Wai. – Rodelia Villar

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HK Immigration clamps down on absentee FDWs

Hong Kong airport.

By Daisy CL Mandap

Immigration authorities in Hong Kong have moved to stop the practice of some local employers of bringing their domestic workers with them when they go abroad, often for extended periods of time.

Recent reports indicate Filipino domestic workers who had returned to Hong Kong after being away for sometime have been warned against the practice by Immigration officers.

Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre welcomed the news, saying it bodes well for Filipino domestic workers who are often brought across the border with China by their Hong Kong employers.

“That’s  a good move by Immigration Department, because many employers with multiple residences are using the employment contract for Hong Kong as an excuse for bringing our nationals over when the actual intention is to make them work in China,” he said.

“It is risky for our domestic workers to be frequently brought across the border because they lose their legal protections and medical and welfare benefits when outside Hong Kong.”

However, those who have reported being questioned by Immigration are Filipino helpers who were brought to places other than China.

One, a Filipino driver hired by an American businessman married to a Filipina, said that on arrival in Hong Kong two weeks ago he was asked extensively why he had been in the Philippines for months. He was told he could not stay away from Hong Kong for more than six months in total each year.



“Sinabi ko na yun sa employer ko, na kailangan na kaming bumalik sa Hong Kong. Mas gusto ko naman diyan kasi ang hirap mag-drive sa Pilipinas dahil sa traffic,” he said.

He also confided that he was paid less than Hong Kong’s minimum allowable wage while in the Philippines, with the employer arguing that he was spending  much less while there.

“Babalik na lang ako sa Hong Kong at marami namang gustong magpirma sa akin dyan,” he said.



Another,  a Filipina domestic worker who travelled extensively with her employer in the United States and other Asian countries, was also warned when she applied to extend her contract in January, that she could not stay away for months on end.

Her employer was also made to sign an undertaking that she was not to take her maid out of Hong Kong for longer than a total of six months each year.

The Filipina helper, in contrast, was not happy about being stopped from accompanying her employer on her frequent travels abroad. She was at least paid her Hong Kong salary, and was allowed to venture out and explore the foreign places they visit.



It appears the new immigration policy does not apply to those crossing the border. A Filipina helper who is in China more often than in Hong Kong, says her employer was only made to sign an undertaking that she would only work at the residential address indicated in their declaration.

The helper returned to Hong Kong only last month. “Let’s see if I get warned when I return from China next month,” she said.

Eman Villanueva, chair of the Filipino Migrant Workers Union, said Immigration’s move was welcome. However the Hong Kong government must ensure that the foreign domestic workers are assured of adequate protection while away.



“In European countries like Swizerland, the labor laws are stricter so that all workers, whether local or foreign, must work for only a fixed period,” he said. Salaries are also far higher than in Hong Kong.

If the laws are to be followed strictly, he said migrant workers must be paid the salary stipulated by the country where they are taken, and allowed to enjoy the same rights given to workers there.

He said the plight of Filipina Lorain Asuncion, whose relatives were left without recourse after she died in the house of her employer’s father in Shenzhen, highlighted the need to ensure all migrant workers are well-protected, more so if they are made to work outside Hong Kong. 

DH tells court she “tapped” elderly ward with stool to stop him touching his feces

Trial was held in Eastern Court

By Vir B. Lumicao

Was it a tap or a blow?

A Filipina accused of assaulting her bedridden elderly male ward has admitted using a pink plastic stool to hit his hand, but said it was just a “tap” to remind him not to touch his feces.

Ivy Rebustillo was again called to the witness on Mar 1 in Eastern Court, for the alleged twin assaults on the husband of her employer on Jun 30 last year. The alleged victim died late last year.

During her testimony, a CCTV footage taken in the living room of the employer’s North Point flat was played repeatedly in a bid to challenge the prosecution’s case that the recording showed her committing both common assault and indecent assault on her ward.

The part where Rebustillo had used a stool to “tap” on the hand of her ward, named only as “Mr X,” was replayed over and over as the helper was asked if that was intentional.

Each time the Filipina said “no”. She repeatedly said it was just a tap to stop her ward touching his feces.

When asked why she had to use the stool to hit the hand of her ward when she could have just used her hand, Rebustillo said it was what she was holding at the time.

But during cross-examination, the prosecutor took note of the force of the tapping. He said the knocking sound picked up by the CCTV from the impact formed the basis for the police charging her with common assault.

The prosecutor also said the seven seconds it took for the Filipina the pull the penis of the elderly man while changing his diaper was the basis for the indecent assault charge. He asked why the Filipina had to hold the sex organ that long if she was just inspecting her ward’s genital area while it was smeared with excrement.

  

The defense scored an initial victory when Magistrate Selma Masood agreed to exclude from the trial a video recorded interview by the police with Resbustillo, after her lawyer alleged investigators used threats and inducements to get her to admit the charges.

But Masood ruled that Rebustillo had a case to answer.

According to Rebustillo’s lawyer assigned by the Duty Lawyer Service, his client was repeatedly body-searched and handcuffed as she was transported between the two police stations in North Point and Wanchai for the interview.

The lawyer also said the police had told the Filipina that she could have a possible sentence of six months in jail reduced to just two months if she pleaded guilty to the charges.

At the start of her testimony, Rebustillo had claimed she did not fully understand a police notice about her rights which she was made to sign, because she was given a Tagalog interpreter instead of a Bicolano one as she had requested.

Her lawyer said it was wrong for the police to make her sign the declaration when she did not fully understand its contents.

Magistrate Masood set the final day of hearing on Mar. 7.

Migrants to protest Labour’s inaction in dead OFW’s case

Lorain Asuncion

By The SUN

A migrant workers’ union is set to protest the failure of the Hong Kong Labour Department to investigate the events that led to an overseas Filipino worker being sent by her employer to Shenzhen, where she apparently took her own life more than a year ago.

The response by the Filipino Migrant Workers Union came in the wake of reports that the family of domestic worker Lorain Asuncion was left facing another blank wall in its quest to gain a semblance of justice over her death because of Labour’s inaction.

According to the deceased’s sister, Jenevieve A. Javier, the Labour Department had not investigated the case reportedly because Asuncion died outside Hong Kong.



Lawyer Teddy Lam, a partner at solicitors’ firm Boase, Cohen and Collins, relayed the news about Labour’s lack of action in a private message to Javier earlier this week.

“I have written to the Labour Department to see whether they had done any investigation. The reply is that they did not investigate as the accident happened outside Hong Kong,” Lam said.

He said he is willing to assist the Asuncion family’s quest for compensation if the latter has evidence to prove its case.



“I have to advise you that the legal burden of proof rest(s) on our shoulders. You have to understand that we lawyers have to rely on evidence, in particular, that legal aid is funding this case,” Lam said.

Earlier, Asuncion’s employers who had been out on police bail, were ordered released with no charges being filed against them.

The authorities’ inaction sparked an angry reaction from Eman Villanueva, chairperson of FMWU.



“This sets a dangerous precedent,” Villanueva said. “It sends the message that once a foreign domestic worker is sent out of Hong Kong to work elsewhere, the employer is no longer accountable to her.”

In fact, said Villanueva, the worker should be better protected by both Hong Kong’s laws and those of the foreign place where she is sent to work.

In many countries in Europe and in the United States, for example, he said the rule is that the worker who is brought there should be paid the prevailing salary, and protected by their own labor laws.



He said his group will consider staging a protest action outside the Labor Department’s offices to protest its inaction.

FMWU's Eman Villanueva

They will also seek help from Labour legislator Fernando Cheung on whether he could initiate a legislative inquiry into the case.

Villanueva said the fact that legal aid had already been granted to Asuncion’s family’s quest for compensation indicates there is probable ground their claim is justified.

Asuncion, 28, plunged to her death from the 22nd floor flat of her female employer’s father in Longgang District, Shenzhen, either on July 23 or 24, 2017.

Three autopsies conducted on her remains all reached the same conlusion – that there was nothing suspicious in her death.

However, the question of how she ended up working in the house of her employer’s father, and why she ended up becoming despondent enough to commit suicide, has not been resolved.

Javier, who has been granted a special power of attorney by her elderly parents to pursue their search for justice for Asuncion’s death, is at a loss over what to do now.

An investigation by Labour could confirm what to her was apparent - that her sister was ordered by her employers Gu Haiyu and his wife, Ms Liu, to cross the border and perform work for another person.

If that could be proven, then the employers should at the very least be held accountable for violating their employment contract that said Asuncion should only work at the address provided there, said Villanueva.

“The offence could be worse, because this has all the signs of human trafficking,” said Villanueva.

But since Hong Kong has unfortunately no law against human trafficking, he said Labour and Immigration should at the very least look into why Asuncion ended up working illegally across the border.

News about the department’s inaction came 10 months after the Hong Kong police released Asuncion’s former employers from criminal liability for the Filipina’s death due to insufficient evidence.

The couple were arrested but allowed to post bail a couple of months after Asuncion’s fatal fall. They were cleared after several months of investigation.

“After enquiry and investigation, police had sought legal advice and it was concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge any person,” a police spokesman said in response to an enquiry on May 11 last year.

“The arrested 47-year-old man and the 32-year-old woman were released,” he said, adding that investigation continued on the Shenzhen side. However, there has been no word either if the Chinese side has completed its investigation, and what its findings are.

Forensic experts from the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau and from a local university who examined Asuncion’s remains separately shortly after the tragedy had both ruled out foul play. A third autopsy by Hong Kong police on Nov 14 made the same findings.