The SUN HK

Filipino maid in online sex booking gets 10-month jail sentence

Posted on 30 October 2019 No comments

Charges vs. Gallego's co-helper and their employer are pending in District Court

A domestic worker has been sentenced in District Court to 10 months in jail after admitting that she conspired with another Filipina helper and their female employer to live on the earnings of prostitutes.

Jeanette V. Gallego, a 47-year-old mother of two, was sentenced by Judge David Dufton after taking her plea on Oct 29.

Gallego’s Legal Aid lawyer told her after the sentencing that she would serve her jail term for just one or two months more on good behavior and holidays, as she had already been held for eight months before she was granted bail in January.

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Her co-helper Jo-an Palpal-latoc, 44, and their employer Heidi Wong Pui-ting, 69, who allegedly owned the online sex booking business that earned $31.5 million over a period of nine years, will appear in District Court again on Nov 28.

Palpal-latoc’s counsel, Mohammed Shah, told the court on Sept 26 that his client would also plead guilty to the conspiracy charge but not to a money-laundering charge against her and Wong. Money earned from the operation was traced to two bank accounts they allegedly controlled.

Dufton accepted the defense lawyer’s assertion that Gallego played only a minor role in the illegal operation that Wong ran in flat on the plush Tavistock II residential tower on Tregunter Path. Wong hired Gallego as her maid on Dec 13, 2010.

For nine years, Gallego’s role was to answer calls and email messages from foreign clients, record their names and nationalities, contact the prostitutes and direct them to hotels where the clients stay.

For her role, she received $1,500 a month in addition to her normal salary as helper.

The prosecutor told Dufton that two Hong Kong police officers who posed as foreign clients separately contacted the dating website operated by Wong in April last year and booked sex services in separate hotels on certain dates.

On Apr 15, 2018, one officer was supplied a prostitute for $10,800 while another for $6,800, with both paying by credit cards.

Police raided Wong’s flat on May 5 last year and arrested Wong, Palpal-latoc and Gallego, as well as Wong's elder sister and a male relative.

The latter two were later released without charge while Wong was charged separately from the Filipinas.

Their cases were consolidated in February, and the money laundering charge was added against Wong and Palpal-latoc.

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HK-based workers urge Duterte to press Indonesia on Veloso case

Posted on 28 October 2019 No comments

The protesters are confident Veloso will be acquitted if she's allowed to tell her story in court

By Vir B. Lumicao

Filipino workers in Hong Kong have asked President Rodrigo Duterte to pressure Indonesia to let Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row in Yogyakarta for drug trafficking, give evidence so she can tell the truth and gain freedom.

The workers, representing various groups such as United Filipinos-Migrante in Hong Kong and Gabriela HK, held a short rally at the Consulate on Monday, Oct 28, to ask the Philippine government to save the life of Veloso.

Veloso has claimed that her recruiters, Maria Cristina P. Sergio and Julius L. Lacanilao, tricked her into smuggling 2.5 kilograms of heroin into Indonesia, an offense for which she was found guilty and sentenced to death.

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She was scheduled to face a firing squad on April 29, 2015 but was given a last-minute reprieve after Sergio and Lacanilao surrendered to Philippine police.

On Oct 11, the Philippine Supreme Court allowed Veloso to testify against Sergio and Lacanilao by way of a deposition in Indonesia. However, Nueva Ecija’s Regional Trial Court has yet to heed the highest court’s ruling.

Monday’s rally coincided with the RTC’s move to give prosecutors a final chance to call their last witness in the human trafficking and estafa cases versus Sergio and Lacanilao. The trial’s outcome will determine whether Veloso will be exonerated or shot.

Unifil chair Dolores Balladares-Pelaez said the rally was part of a global mass action to appeal to both Duterte and Indonesian President Jokowi to allow Veloso’s deposition as evidence in her human trafficking case in Nueva Ecija and drug case in Yogyakarta.

“Nakapagtataka na hanggang ngayon, kahit umamin na ang kanyang mga human traffickers ay hindi pa binibigyan si Mary Jane ng pagkakataon na magsalita bilang witness sa kanyang sariling kaso,” said Pelaez.

She said that the case is crucial to Veloso, to her family and to all OFWs because if she does not get acquitted, it would show that any migrant worker can be accused, convicted and sentenced to death even if she is not guilty.

Gabriela chairperson Sheila Tebia said each day that Veloso remains in jail on reprieve, her life is still in danger.

“Ayaw natin na sa makabagong panahon ay magkakaroon muli tayo ng isang Flor Contemplacion,” she said.

“Marami pa pong mga kaso ng death penalty (ng mga Pilipino) na nasa iba’t ibang bansa. Marami pang pamilya ang umaasa na pauwiiin at agad matugunan ang kaso ni Mary Jane Veloso,” Tebia said.

Contemplacion, also an OFW, was hanged by Singapore on Mar 17, 1995 for the murders of fellow helper Delia Maga and her 4-year-old ward Nicholas Huang, despite pleas for her life by the President Fidel V. Ramos.

Rev. Joram Calimutam urged the Philippine and Indonesian governments to let Veloso speak so that she can tell the truth about her case as, he said, “the truth will set her free.”

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HK Filcom groups unite vs. new mandatory fees for OFWs

Posted on 27 October 2019 No comments

Logo of the new coalition which is made up of some of the biggest Filcom groups in Hong Kong

By The SUN

Leaders of 15 Filipino migrant organizations in Hong Kong have formed a coalition and are seeking a meeting with Consul General Raly Tejada to discuss their opposition to what they call “excessive government fees” imposed on them.

In a solidarity meeting on Sunday, Oct 27, at Statue Square in Central, the leaders who set up Rise Against Government Exaction (Rage) Hong Kong said the Duterte government burdens OFWs with mandatory fees but does not give them sufficient services in return.

The leaders said they have sent a letter requesting a meeting with Congen Tejada on Nov 10 to voice out their opposition to the forced memberships and fees but are still awaiting his reply. They will also present a petition with 30,000 signatures to the head of post.

Filcom leaders sign on the Rage banner to show their unity against the govt exactions

A protest rally against the mandatory memberships is also being planned ahead of the celebration of International Migrants Day on Dec 15.

The meeting was held in reaction to the government’s recent announcement requiring PhilHealth membership for all OFWs at 50% more than current rate starting January next year. The current annual premium of Php2,400 per year will go up to Php3,600 next year, until it reaches Php6,000 by 2022.

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“We have always been exhausted with our long working hours, inhuman accommodation and low wages, and now we are being made to pay for more fees, as if we are made of money,” United Filipinos in Hong Kong chairperson Dolores Balladares-Pelaez said.

Pelaez, addressing the meeting, said the workers should not meekly accept all the fee increases that the government in Manila forcibly imposes on migrant workers.

Unifil chair Dolores Balladares-Pelaez recounts all the new fees OFWs are being made to pay

She recalled that last year, the government passed a resolution requiring all OFWs to be insured in the Philippines even if their employers are already required to have them insured in their work destinations.

This was followed by the implementation of mandatory membership of all OFWs in the Social Security System, whether already deployed abroad or about to leave the country.

More recently, she said, membership in Pag-IBIG, the state housing fund scheme, was also made mandatory, meaning no OFW can secure an overseas employment certificate or OEC unless they have paid for all the required fees.

“Sa usaping ito ng mandatory membership, ang paninindigan po natin ay hindi natin pinipigilan ang isang migrante kung nagnanais siyang mag-member ng SSS, ng Pag-IBIG, ng PhilHealth o anumang insurance,” Pelaez said.

But she said forcing OFWs to pay for membership in all these government agencies is a different matter altogether.

She said that aside from opposing mandatory memberships in various government schemes, the coalition is also against the excessive increases in premium fees, such as the more than 50% hike in SSS and PhilHealth memberships.

These fees combined are far more than the meager wage rise that the Hong Kong government has granted to Filipino migrant workers for the past years, and eat into their already meager budget for their family's needs.

Other leaders who spoke against the mandatory memberships and excessive fees were Marites Nuval of Global Alliance and Alann Mas of Abante Cagayanos, who are also spokespersons of Rage.

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Filipina asylum-seeker jailed nearly 8 years for drug trafficking

Posted on No comments

by Vir B. Lumicao

The former helper was sentenced on Oct 25 in the High Court.

A 37-year-old Filipina former domestic helper has been ordered locked up for seven years and eight months by a High Court judge after pleading guilty to a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs.

Josephine Felizardo showed no emotion as Judge Poon Siu-tung read out his sentence on her on Friday, Oct. 25.

Felizardo a mother of four who was on recognizance, appeared in court with Charlotte Marie Borrill, a British-Indonesian woman aged 20, on related charges.

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Felizardo was charged with drug trafficking following her arrest in a police search on a residential unit at 119 Shanghai St in Yaumatei on Apr 28 last year.

Borrill, as the registered occupant of the flat, was also arrested and charged for allowing the premises to be used for drug trafficking.

Both pleaded guilty to the charges on separate occasions, but their cases were consolidated when they were transferred to the High Court, the prosecutor said.

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Felizardo was arrested at about noon on Apr 28 last year when police armed with a search warrant entered the flat and saw her sit on a bed and put her right hand on a bag which was found to contain 23.09 grams of “ice”, 27.9g of cocaine and 18g of ketamine.

Some 23 grams of "ice" similar to this heap was seized from Felizardo.

The police also found two bottles with traces of drugs and $80,400 cash in a handbag belonging to Felizardo.

Felizardo told the officers Borrill owned the flat and she was just there for the night. She said she did not know two other people seen visiting the unit before the raid.

Borrill told the police her father owned the flat and that he let her stay there for the three months before the raid. She said she knew the two bottles had traces of drugs but that she was not aware narcotics were being trafficked in the unit.

The prosecution said Felizardo was convicted in December 2015 for breach of condition of stay for which she was sentenced to a six-week jail term suspended for three years. She later applied for recognizance.

Her trafficking offense took place while she was on suspended sentence.

In mitigation, the defense lawyer said Felizardo came here to work as a domestic helper in 2014 but was terminated in 2015. She overstayed, was arrested and convicted. She has a husband in the Philippines and four children who are all studying.

Judge Poon gave Felizardo a discount for her guilty plea, and ordered that her six-week sentence for breach of condition to be served concurrently with that for drug trafficking.

At the recommendation of Borrill’s lawyer Kamlesh Sadhawni, the judge postponed the sentencing of Borrill until Nov 1 pending her sentencing on a separate charge of drug possession.

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