The SUN HK

7 new cases of Wuhan pneumonia reported in HK

Posted on 05 January 2020 No comments

By The SUN

Health checks at HK's airport have been tightened as a result of the mystery disease outbreak

Hong Kong authorities have reported seven new cases of people being admitted to various public hospitals with pneumonia-like symptoms believed to have been picked up from Wuhan City in Central China.

All the patients, aged between 2 and 55 years old, were taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours after showing signs of fever, respiratory infection or pneumonia symptoms. They are all in stable condition.

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Three of them, two males and one female, are confined at Queen Elizabeth Hospital; two, a male and a two-year-old female, are in Princess Margaret Hospital; one other female is in Ruttonjee Hospital; and the last, a male, is in Tseung Kwan O Hospital.

A government press release issued at noon today, Jan. 5, said the new patients brought to 15 the total number of such cases reported in Hong Kong since Dec 31. Five of the patients admitted to hospital earlier have been discharged.

The statement said all the patients had been to Wuhan in the past 14 days, but had not been to any wet market there. News reports had earlier identified a wet market in Hubei’s capital as the source of the outbreak of the still unidentified type of pneumonia.

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They are all being treated in isolation at the hospitals while the Department of Health is conducting further tests.

Reports of the mysterious flu outbreak have revived memories of the deadly SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) that started in China in 2002, and went on to kill hundreds of people in several places, including 299 in Hong Kong.

Latest reports from Wuhan said 44 people had been admitted to hospital with the unidentified virus, and 11 are in serious condition. A further 121 are under observation. However, no death has been reported.

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At least one suspected case has also been reported in Singapore, involving a three-year-old girl from China who had pneumonia and had traveled to Wuhan.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Health Sophia Chan has reminded people not to visit wet markets or eat wild animals while traveling. She also assured the public that the government has adopted an active response to the outbreak.

Yesterday, the government activated its new three-tier response mechanism for infectious diseases and put down the suspected Wuhan pneumonia cases as “serious”. Least serious cases merit an alert response, and the most serious, an emergency.

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PCG aims to set new record in overseas vote

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By Vir B. Lumicao

Overseas voting registration at the PCG started on Dec 16 and will last until Sept 30, 2021.

Voter registration for the 2022 presidential and local elections is underway at the Consulate, and staff running the list-up say they are aiming to overtake the 23,000 who registered for the 2019 Philippine midterm election.

Rene Fajardo, who was manning the OVR desk at the Consulate’s lobby on Jan 5, said his team would have to attract more registrants to set a new record for the total number of registered Filipino overseas voters in Hong Kong.

The current record stands at 93,978 voters, set ahead of the 2016 national and local elections. For last year’s mid-term vote, a total of 87,441 were registered as voters, but only 34,183 or about 40% cast their votes to choose 12 senators and a party-list representative.

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Fajardo said the Commission on Elections deactivated 16,000 registered voters in Hong Kong after the month-long election that ended on May 13 last year, so there should be more effort to encourage qualified voters to register.

There are about 220,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong, more than 90% of whom are migrant workers, who should all be qualified to vote.

Under Philippine law, all Filipino citizens who are not disqualified by law and at least 18 years old can register to vote in an election.

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The overseas registration officially kicked off on Dec. 16 last year, and will end on Sept. 30, 2021.

According to a registration volunteer, this Sunday has been the busiest so far, with about 50 people already registered and about 10 more waiting before the 4pm closing of the Consulate.

As in previous registration exercises, the number is expected to peak in the last few months of the nearly two-year long exercise.

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Those who want to register as an overseas voter in Hong Kong must go to the Consulate and bring a copy of their valid Philippine passport, or, if a dual citizenship holder, a copy of their oath of allegiance or proof of citizenship from the Bureau of Immigration.

For seafarers, they must present a copy of their seaman’s book.

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Unifil decries mandatory, punitive Philhealth payments imposed on OFWs

Posted on 04 January 2020 No comments

By Daisy CL Mandap

PhilHealth graphic shows premiums going up to 5% of monthly income in 5 years

The dreaded increase in mandatory premiums for PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance) officially took effect on December 7 last year, and it turned out to be much higher than what Filipino overseas workers had expected. Worse, all OFWs are now compelled to pay for it.

A Filipino domestic worker in Hong Kong who earns the minimum wage of HK$4,360 a month (or Php30,095), for example, is now required to pay Php900 per month, or Php10,800 each year.

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The premiums will be higher for those earning more, because the mandatory contribution for this year is pegged at 3% of the worker’s monthly salary, in line with Republic Act 11223 or the so-called Universal Health Care Act.

The monthly premiums will gradually increase through the next few years, until the 5% level is reached by the years 2024-2025. This means an OFW in HK will be paying at least Php1,500 a month (or Php18,000 a year) by then.

Previously, OFWs were not compelled to pay for PhilHealth, so most of those who found a need to secure health insurance for their family members in the Philippines only paid the minimum premium of Php2,400 a year or Php200 a month.

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Unifil kicks off a new round of signature campaign against the hiked PhilHeatlh fees and other govt charges

Without prior notice or clear guidelines being relayed to OFWs about the new law, which provides for health insurance for all Filipinos but passes on the financial burden to contributors, the impact of the new compulsory fee is now just being felt.

United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-Migrante Hong Kong) has immediately slammed the new mandatory fee as another ploy by the Philippine government to squeeze OFWs.

Balladares-Pelaez says the mandatory fees punishes not just the OFWs but also their families

“It is bleeding us dry,” said Unifil’s chair Dolores Balladares-Pelaez in a statement issued on Jan. 3.

“This is a huge amount of money we can supposedly send to our families for their daily needs, but this will never happen because PhilHealth is mandatory for all OFWs now,” she said.

According to the statement, newly hired OFWs are now being required to pay Php2,400 upfront prior to their deployment abroad, and the balance must be paid in full “after six months or in the next two quarters.”

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Those who don’t pay on time will be charged an interest of 1.5% for every month of missed contributions. However, it is not clear how OFWs who are already abroad could be compelled to pay for PhilHealth, which has no offices in any government post abroad.

Pelaez said that in the same way that the Duterte government had issued a “kill, kill, kill” order against mere drug suspects and human rights defenders, it is now killing families of OFWs through various state exactions.

She also decried that instead of setting aside funds to back up his promise of universal health care for Filipinos, President Rodrigo Duterte merely passed on the financial burden to OFWs.

“The solution of Philippine government to the long clamor of Filipinos for accessible health care and to stop the exodus of Filipino medical practitioners is to intensify government exaction from OFWs instead of allocating sustainable budget for health services and curbing corruption in the government,” she said.

Unifil is a founder of the Rise Against State Exactions (Rage) coalition in Hong Kong, which has been waging a strident campaign against various compulsory fees collected from OFWs, including for SSS, OWWA, mandatory insurance, and PhilHealth.

The group has vowed to continue fighting for what it calls as unjust and inhumane government exactions on OFWs.

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High Court rejects overstayer’s bid to stall removal order

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Court says Immigration can still send you back even if you've filed a torture claim

The Court of First Instance has turned down a 40-year-old Filipina asylum-seeker’s leave to apply for a review of Hong Kong Immigration’s decision to issue a removal order against her while her application for non-refoulement was still pending.

Judge Anderson Chow said in a decision on Dec 27 that Catleah Isidre’s application not to be sent home is not a ground for challenging the validity of a deportation order served on her.

Isidre filed a non-refoulement claim on Oct 13, 2016, shortly after she was convicted of breach of condition of stay and sentenced to two weeks in jail, suspended for three years, for overstaying her 14-day visitor’s visa.

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She had cited as grounds her “left ear drum problem” and fear of being killed if she was sent back home.

Isidre returned to Hong Kong as a visitor after working as a domestic helper in the SAR for just 13 days from May 21, 2006.

Immigration issued a removal order against her Feb 20, 2018. Isidre appealed the decision, but on Mar 27 of the same year, the Director affirmed the order.

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Isidre then turned to Torture Claims Appeal Board/Non-refoulement Claims Petition Office which similarly dismissed her appeal in July last year. She then applied for leave for a judicial review of both orders.

“The fact that an overstayer has made a non-refoulement claim is not a ground against the making of a removal order against that person who does not have any right or permission to remain in Hong Kong,” Chow said in his decision.

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Chow said Isidre’s ear drum issue was irrelevant to the removal order, and her claim of risk to life had been dealt with by Immigration Director and the TCAB.

The judge then made the unusual order of making Isidre pay the costs of the Director.

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Court of Appeal rejects mom and daughter’s bid to stop deportation

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No basis to the mother's claim she and her daughter will be killed if they were sent home, says CA

By The SUN

A Filipina domestic helper and her Hong Kong-born daughter have failed in their appeal against a court order denying their application for leave to apply for judicial review of the government’s decision to send them home.

Rosalyn P. and her four-year-old daughter, J.C., had appealed against the decision of Deputy High Court Judge Bruno Chan on Jun 28 last year refusing their application.

But on Dec 27, the Court of Appeal through Vice President M H Lam and Justices Maria Yuen and Carlyle Chu affirmed the lower court’s decision.

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The mother and daughter had sought a judicial review of the Immigration director’s decisions on May 12 and Nov 2, 2016 rejecting their claim for non-refoulement, as well as the Torture Claims Appeal Board’s upholding the decisions on Oct 13, 2017.

Rosalyn, a domestic helper in Hong Kong since 2008, was fired from her work on Apr 17, 2015. She overstayed but surrendered on May 14^th of the same year.

She asked for an order against being sent home on Sept 18 of that year, and then later for her daughter, who was born on Oct 1, 2015.

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Rosalyn claimed they would be harmed or even killed by her husband because she had an extramarital affair with another man and gave birth to the daughter as a result.

The Director rejected their claim of risk to life and persecution on Nov 2, 2016, and on Oct 13, 2017, the TCAB upheld this decision.

Rosalyn then sought leave from the CA on Nov 13, 2017 but gave no grounds for seeking relief or a hearing. Judge Chan refused her application.

The two then appealed against this decision on Jul 8, claiming the judgment was unreasonable, and reiterated the perceived threats on their life.

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In dismissing their application, the justices said the Director’s decision could no longer be appealed as there were no exceptional circumstances cited.

As for the TCAB’s decision, the justices said the applicants faced no genuine and substantial risk of ill-treatment if sent home, as state protection was available in the Philippines and internal relocation was possible.

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