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OFW leads all-Pinay rugby team

Posted on 22 March 2019 No comments

Khaz Brizuela takes a selfie as her fellow players limber up.

By Ellen Asis

Like most Filipino migrant women, Khaz Brizuela chose to work in Hong Kong to give a better future for her children. But her work here also gave her an opportunity to improve herself, and discover a passion for rugby, a game not familiar to most Filipinos

In the Philippines, the term rugby is often associated with the chemical solvent that is used as an adhesive, but is often inhaled by drug addicts to give them a quick fix. Thus, whenever Khaz mentions rugby, some of her Filipino friends are bound to joke about its addictive effect.

But the jokes don’t bother Khaz, who now captains Exiles Rugby, a team entirely made up of female domestic workers from the Philippines. She has found fulfillment in the sport, and cannot imagine herself doing anything as intensely in her spare time.

The group was formed on Mar 7, 2016, when Tom Walsh, a professional coach from Hong Kong Rugby Union, encouraged nine Filipino domestic workers who volunteer as ambassadors for Enrich, a non-government organization that provides financial education to migrants, to form a team.

Among them was Khaz, who threw herself into the game wholeheartedly that in no time, she became the team captain, and now also plays coach to the girls sometimes.

Exiles Rugby currently has 66 very dedicated members (including 42 who joined only in July last year) who train hard every Sunday, and do not mind the grueling demands of the contact sport.

The all-Filipina rugby team take a break from their grueling practice rounds for a photo.

The team intends to reach out and encourage more migrant women to play rugby and join different friendly tournaments across Hong Kong. This way, it can help integrate migrants into Hong Kong society and provide them with a recreational activity that will help them develop lifelong skills and values like cooperation and teamwork.

For Khaz, the past three years playing rugby taught her to keep her eye on her goals, no matter how distant they may seem. She has learned that there may be bumps along the way, but one has to choose whether to step back, or go head-to-head with the task and emerge bruised yet victorious.

She says the game also taught her that sometimes, admitting defeat is the bravest thing to do because with that admission one can drop the shield of pretense and find the courage to face reality and reach out.

“Each Sunday makes me more eager to help them (members) with the help of my co-captains now, Myra (Tapiceria) and Celine (Tomugdan), who stepped up after a coaching course last May at Hong Kong Rugby Union in Causeway Bay,” says Khaz.

To date, the Rugby Exiles has played in various tournaments, with the most recent being the All Girls Beach Festival held last Jan. 13 in Discovery Bay. But the biggest event they have joined was the Hong Kong Corporate Sevens held in December last year.

Khaz relates that their Sundays are called “Rugby Day” which they spend not just as a team, but as family.

“We laugh, we have fun as we love being with each other,” she says. “So many people (in Hong Kong) think that maids cannot do what ordinary people can do or achieve.”

By just embracing the sport, Khaz and her team have proven these naysayers wrong.

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How to calculate your benefits

Posted on No comments

By Cynthia Tellez

This is the monthly column from the Mission for Migrant Workers, an institution that has been serving the needs of migrant workers in Hong Kong for over 31 years. The Mission, headed by its general manager, Cynthia Tellez, assists migrant workers who are in distress, and focuses its efforts on crisis intervention and prevention through migrant empowerment. Mission has its offices at St John’s Cathedral on Garden Road, Central, and may be reached through tel. 2522 8264.

Mathematics is seldom a favorite subject of Filipinos. But what we often overlook is that this part of our everyday life. Words like percentage, pro-rata, formula, etc tend to put many of us on guard because they sound far more difficult than the basic arithmetic of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

But to many of us here, especially migrant domestic workers, there is a need to relearn these mathematical skills because we need them in computing wages, benefits, loans, personal insurance, investments, savings, name it, they all require these. So instead of hating these computing skills, we should start reviewing what we learned from our high school and college math subjects and focus on those that are applicable to our present condition. Love it, practice it, live it.

One of the most common words that you will see in the provisions regarding salaries and more so with regards to workers benefits is the word “pro-rata”. This means “in proportion of”, or of determining a proportionate allocation to parts of a whole. It is used when determining the number of days one is entitled to, for example, on the number of annual leave days.

Let us take a look at Annual Leave Pay as an example. A worker is entitled to this pay depending on the number of years he or she has continuously worked with an employer. This entitlement is based on the contract (Employment Ordinance Cap 57). Obviously, annual leave pay is earned every year. But we have to know that to be legally entitled to this pay, a worker must have worked continuously to have worked for an employer for no less than three months. Thus, if you are on a two-year contract and the said contract is prematurely-terminated after two months or even two and a half months, you are still not entitled to annual leave pay. But say you have worked for nine (9) months and the employment contract is terminated for whatever reason, you are entitled to a pro rata annual leave pay. So if in your first year of employment you are entitled to seven days of paid annual leave, you will have to compute how many days then you are entitled for 8 months:

- divide 9 months by 12 months and multiply the result by 7days: you get the number of days of annual leave pay that you are entitled to. Then you multiply that with your daily wage.

To illustrate:
9 months / 12 months = .75 days x 7days = 5.25 days x $148.60 = $780.15

We then go look into how much should be your daily wage.

In many instances, the computation that employers follow, as taught by placement agencies, is to simply divide the monthly wage by either 30 days or 31 days or 28 days depending on how many days there are in the month you are claiming pay for. For example, you are claiming for unpaid statutory holiday for January 1st, when your employer asked you not to go out and help prepare for a New Year’s party. Your tendency is to divide your monthly wage by 31 (as there are 31 days in January). That is wrong. The contract of migrant domestic workers (or foreign domestic helpers) is a month-by -month contract for a maximum of two years and therefore if you are a migrant domestic worker, you are a monthly wager. You are not a daily wager.

Daily wage of a monthly wager therefore is computed this way:
- multiply your monthly wage by 12 to get one year’s total wage and divide it by 365 days to get your day’s wage.

To illustrate: HK$4,520 x 12months = HK$ 54,240 / 365 days = HK$148.60

This computation should be followed. You have to insist on this formula.

This brings us to another computation that is usually a concern of those who have worked in a continuous contract, meaning with the same employer, for more than five years and the employer terminates the contract or the employer refuses to sign a new contract. This is the Long Service Pay (LSP).

Take note that the only time you are entitled to LSP is when it is the employer who terminates the contract that has run for 5 years or more, unless you have a medical certificate stating that you are “UNFIT to work” or that you have reached 65 years of age, the legal retirement age in Hong Kong.

The computation for LSP also depends on your last month’s salary:

Get the two-thirds of that last month’s salary by multiplying the salary by two and divide the result by three. The answer is the equivalent of 2/3 of your monthly salary. Multiply that by the number of years of service with the employer. If you have worked for six years, multiply the answer by 6.

To illustrate:
HK$4,520 x 2 / 3 = $ 3,013.33 x 6 years = HK$18,080
(Monthly Wage) (2/3 of a Month’s Wage) (Your LSP for Six Years)

If you have worked, for example, for six years and seven months, first, do the pro rata computation of the seven months’ equivalent in a year.
- 12-month is equal to one year;
- 7-month divided by 12-month equals .58 year
So 6 years +.58 year = 6.58 years
HK$ 4,520 x 2/3 = $3,013.33 x 6.58 = HK$19,828
(Monthly Wage) (2/3 of a Month’s Wage) (Your LSP for Six Years & 7 Months)

The same computation is applied to Severance Payment. The same requirements apply, that it is the employer who terminated the contract and is not anymore hiring anyone to do the same job that you do. If you have worked for them for two years or more, then you are entitled to severance pay. The same computation as above applies.

For any clarifications, you may call 2522-8264 or visit the Mission For Migrant Workers, an outreach ministry of St. John’s Cathedral, at 4-8 garden Road, Central, Hong Kong.

It pays to know your rights and responsibilities.

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PCG to meet Filcom end of Mar on preps for overseas voting

Posted on 21 March 2019 No comments

Photo from 2016 presidential ballot in Bayanihan

By Vir B. Lumicao

The Consulate plans to meet with Filipino community leaders on Mar 31 on preparations for the month-long overseas voting for the Philippine midterm elections starting on Apr 13, a PCG officer said.

Consul Robert Quintin, who is in charge of holding of the elections for the more than 87,000 registered Filipino voters in Hong Kong, told The SUN that the meeting will coincide with the training of volunteers for the Special Board of Election Inspectors.

All but two of the 18 volunteers for the nine SBEIs that will be set up for the elections have been selected as of this writing. Each SBEI will have two members from the community and be led by a Consulate staff.

Most of the SBEI volunteers, who are all Filipino residents of Hong Kong, had served in the previous election, Quintin said.

Quintin said trainers from the Commission on Elections are expected to arrive in the next few days along with the computerized vote-counting machines similar to those deployed in the 2016 national elections.

“We will be definitely meeting with the community but we cannot do that yet,” Quintin said, adding that Comelec has started sending out its trainers to various OFW destinations and those assigned to Hong Kong should be arriving soon.

He also said there are some administrative preparations they still have to complete.

Voting will start at 9am on Saturday, Apr 13, at the Bayanihan Center in Kennedy Town and will close at 6pm on May 13. Latecomers who are within 30 meters of the polling precincts will still be allowed to vote.

About 50% of the 87,441 overseas voters registered in Hong Kong are expected to turn out to elect 12 new members of the Senate and one party-list representative.

Quintin said the next two weeks will be very busy for the Consulate as preparations will have to be crammed into a short period.

These will include installing and testing the vote-counting machines as well as securing the boxes of ballots that will be kept at Bayanihan.

Quintin said the canvassing of votes from Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China will be consolidated in Bayanihan as in the 2016 elections.

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Sanhi ng kanser ng mga OFW, nasa mga gusali?

Posted on No comments

Ni Vir B. Lumicao

Tila marami sa ating mga kababayang kasambahay dito sa Hong Kong ang nagkakasakit ng kanser na hindi malinaw kung ano ang dahilan.

Nitong mga nakaraang araw, may mga kaibigan o kakilala tayo na nagpapagamot sa ospital dito dahil tinamaan sila ng nabanggit na sakit, o di kaya ay umuwi na sa Pilipinas dahil nasa mga huling yugto na ang kanilang kanser.

May halos 10 buwan na ang nakalilipas nang banggitin sa amin ng isang opisyal ng Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, o OWWA, na nababahala siya sa dami ng mga kasambahay na Pilipinang dinadapuan ng kanser sa lungsod na ito, kumpara sa iba pang mga destinasyon ng mga OFW.

Wala pang natitipong estadistika ang OWWA sa bilang ng mga OFW dito sa Hong Kong nagkasakit ng kanser o nasawi dahil sa na kanser kaya hindi natin nakikita ang tunay na larawan ng pananalasa ng sakit na ito sa ating mga manggagawa.

May mga kuru-kurong ang dahilan ng pagkakasakit ng kanser ng maraming kasambahay dito ay ang “stress.” Ito ang presyon o parating pag-aalala o pagkabahala sa kanilang mga gawain, trabaho, pera o pamilya na nagiging mitsa ng pagkakasakit nila ng kanser.

Sinasabi naman ng iba na ang sanhi ng pagkakasakit ay nasa kinakain ng mga katulong. Ang iniisip nila marahil ay sagana sa pagkain ang mg katulong. Sa totoo lang, marami sa mga kasambahay dito ang umaangal na kakaunti o walang ibinibigay na pagkain ang kanilang mga amo.

Sa paghahanap namin ng maaaring sanhi ng kanser sa mga nakatira sa lungsod na ito ay isang pananaliksik na isinagawa ng mga taga-University of Hong Kong noong 1993 ang pumukaw sa aming interes.

Ang pananaliksik na ito ay ukol sa masamang epekto sa kalusugan ng tao ng radon gas, isang “radioactive gas” na hindi nakikita at walang amoy na singaw ng biniyak na batong granito at kongkreto.

Ayon sa mga gumawa ng report, napatunayan ng mga pag-aaral sa ibang bansa na ang pagkakalantad sa radon at mga produkto ng pagkakabulok nito ay nakararagdag sa pagkakaroon ng kanser sa baga.

Ipinapahiwatig ng iba pang mga pag-aaral na may kaugnayan ang radon sa sakit na leukemia, ang kanser sa selula ng dugo o pagkakaroon ng mas maraming puti kaysa sa pulang selula ng dugo.

Ang sintomas ng leukemia ay halos hindi halata sa simula, tulad ng pagkahapo, di-maipaliwanag na lagnat, di-normal na mga pasa, sakit sa ulo at labis na pagdurugo, at pagkakabawas ng timbang at madalas na pagkakaroon ng impeksiyon.

Ayon sa pag-aaral ng HKU, may potensiyal ang Hong Kong na magkaroon ng mataas na lebel ng radon dahil nakatuntong ang SAR say batong granito at ginagamit sa pagtatayo ng mga gusali ang mga graba, semento at buhanging nagmula sa giniling na granito.

Mas malamang umano ang pagkakaroon ng radon sa loob ng mga kulob na gusali kaysa sa mga bukas ang disenyo o may sapat na hangin.

Dahil ang mga tirahan sa Hong Kong ay gawa sa kongkreto, ang mga nakatira sa mga gusaling ito, lalo na ang mga katulong na halos buong araw na nasa loob ng bahay, ay nalalantad sa mataas na lebel ng radon at, samakatwid, mas madaling magkaroon ng kanser kaysa sa mga pinagsisilbihan pamilyang palaging nasa labas.

Sana ay magkaroon ng isang pag-aaral na nakatuon sa posibilidad na ang pagdami ng mga katulong na nagkakaroon ng sakit na kanser ay bunga ng kanilang pagkakalantad sa radon dito sa gubat ng mga bato at kongkretong gusali.

Sa aming sapantaha, maaaring isa ito sa mga sanhi ng kanser ng mga katulong, bukod sa masamang pagtrato ng ilang mga amo tulad ng labis-labis na oras ng trabaho, kakulangan sa pagkain at pagtulog, at kaawa-awa nilang kundisyon.

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Mas madali nang tawagan ang mga advertiser natin dito. Pindutin lang ang kanilang ad at lalabas ang automatic dialer. Isa pang pindot ay matatawagan mo ang advertiser na hindi na kailangang i-dial ang numero nila. I-try mo!

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Pinay jailed for stealing ex-employer’s $80k Rolex watch to repay debt

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A Rolex watch costs upwards of tens of thousands of dollars

By Vir B. Lumicao

A Filipina domestic helper who stole the Rolex watch of her Chinese former employer in February and pawned it for $50,000 to settle her debt is now in jail paying for her offense.

Liezel Lacuarta, 49, pleaded guilty in Eastern Court on Mar 21 to one count of theft, with her lawyer saying in mitigation that she was remorseful and was tempted to steal because of her $47,000 debt.

But Magistrate Peter Law sentenced Lacuarta to four months in jail, saying he could not justify a further reduction other than the one-third discount for her guilty plea.

“The case is a breach of trust case and the value stolen is not small,” the magistrate said.

The particular model of the Rolex watch was valued at $79,895.

The prosecution said the theft took place on Feb 10 but was discovered by intelligence officers of the Western Police on Feb 14 during a routine check of pawnshop reports.

The officers noticed that a Rolex watch was hocked by a domestic helper for $50,000 at Kwan Yick Pawnshop in Sai Ying Pun. Suspecting that the watch was stolen from her employer, the police visited Lacuarta at her workplace and took her statement.

Lacuarta told the officers a friend had instructed her to pawn the watch and offered her half of the money as reward. The defendant was arrested after she said she complied because she needed money.

Police contacted Rolex and found out the watch was sold to Xiong Ju-jin in November 2012 by Dickson Watch & Jewellery, a shop that specializes in luxury watches.

Xiong was located at his address on Tower 1, The Metropolis Residence, in Hung Hom. It was learned that he employed Lacuarta as domestic helper in his flat from 2012 to 2016 but stopped hiring her when his children had to go abroad for their studies.

Even so, Xiong said his relationship with Lacuarta was good, so, he told her to keep the key to be able to access his flat freely.

On Feb 11, Xiong could not find his watch but did not report to police, thinking that he had only misplaced it.

In a second video recorded interview on Mar 20, Lacuarta admitted she stole the watch and pawned it for $50,000 to repay her debt.

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I-TRY MO ITO, KATRIBO!
Mas madali nang tawagan ang mga advertiser natin dito. Pindutin lang ang kanilang ad at lalabas ang automatic dialer. Isa pang pindot ay matatawagan mo ang advertiser na hindi na kailangang i-dial ang numero nila. I-try mo!

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