North Point traffic accident victims to get help from govt

A makeshift shrine to the dead at the spot where the bus finally came to a halt

By The SUN

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has promised help to the families of those who died or were injured in yesterday’s traffic accident in North Point.

 Cheung Hong street, from where the empty bus
rolled down and started mowing down people

Speaking to reporters before an Executive Council meeting today, Mrs Lam also said the police will thoroughly investigate the accident.

Four pedestrians were killed when an empty school bus rolled down Cheung Hong Street, then crossed busy King’s Road, before hitting a post and stopping on Hei Wo street.

Eleven others were injured, including the bus driver who used his body in a vain attempt to stop the vehicle; and two Filipinos, a 50-year-old man and 43-year-old woman whose identities are still being ascertained by Philippine Consulate officials.

According to staff at the Consulate’s assistance to nationals section, Hong Kong Police have said the two injured had Hong Kong ID cards, meaning they are not tourists, but declined to give their names.

The restaurant sideswiped by the bus: Many Filipinas often
wait for their wards at a school two doors down

Officers at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration said they tried to check with the two hospitals where the injured Filipinos were taken: Ruttonjee in Wanchai and Pamela Youde Nethersole in Chaiwan, but could not get any other information.

Welfare officer Virsie Tamayao said she wanted to find out if they were migrant Filipino workers so their families back in the Philippines could be notified.

The Consulate officers were also keen to check on the patients, even if police have assured them that both are in stable condition.

The freak incident was the latest in a series of fatal traffic accidents to have happened in Hong Kong since the start of the year.

Citing Transport Department figures, Mrs. La said the number of fatal traffic accidents in the first 11 months of this year has increased by about 10% compared to the same period last year.

 

She promised the government will step up its effort to enhance road safety.

“As a result of the very serious, fatal traffic accidents this year, the relevant departments will, of course in light of the investigations of every incident, recommend and take the necessary measures," she said.

She said some safety measures are already being tightened up, and as promised in her Policy Address, public funds could be used to further enhance safety to protect the public.

As she spoke, cars were again parked on the slopes of Cheung Hong street, even as traces of blood, apparently from the injured bus driver, could still be seen on the ground.

The warped door of a restaurant that was hit when the bus mounted the pavement as it accelerated towards King’s Road also serves as a mute testimony to the mayhem that occurred the day before.

On Pei Ho street, where the bus came to a halt after hitting most of the casualties, solemn-faced pedestrians laid flowers and fruit offerings at a makeshift shrine to the dead.

But elsewhere in the area, it was back to business, and traffic along King’s Road was again as busy as ever.

Filipina wins $19k from fake employer who tried to send her to China

By Vir B. Lumicao

A Filipina has been awarded more than $19,000 from a Hong Kong woman who pretended to be the employer who hired her four months ago, then tried to send her to China to work for another person.

Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre

The compensation order was made by Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre who met with the worker and the fake employer on Nov. 19



During the meeting, Dela Torre said he discovered that the domestic worker’s contract did not bear the name of the poseur and that the address given was different from where she was taken to work. 



Also, the chop on her contract was that of a sub-agent, and not by her Hong Kong employment agency.

Dela Torre said he told the local woman that what she was trying to do was in breach of Immigration rules.



He ordered the woman to pay the Filipina three months salary, or $13,320; plus a full refund of the Php40,000 ($5,960) that she paid her agency in the Philippines for training and other charges.

The woman reportedly agreed to do as she was told immediately.



According to the worker, she broke her contract after learning that she was to be sent to China to work.



She was reportedly told by the local woman that her “real employer” had already secured a China visitor visa for her, so she would be taken there to work.

The helper, a first-timer in Hong Kong, is using her 14-day visa extension to look for a new employer. 

OFWs must know importance of senatorial elections, Comelec exec says

Commissioner Rowena Guanzon with Consulate officials at the Filipino community meeting

By Vir B. Lumicao

Filipino voters should realize how important next May’s midterm elections are because they will be electing senators who will make laws and policies that could affect the economy and their jobs.

Guanzon reunites with UP Law classmate,
Daisy Mandap of The SUN

This was what Commission on Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon told Hong Kong-based Philippine media during a meeting at the Consulate on Dec 9.

Guanzon said newsmen should help encourage the OFWs to vote, and to focus on candidates’ programs, not on personalities.

The Comelec official in charge of overseas voting expressed concern that only about 50% of the 87,000 registered voters here cast their ballot in May 2016, despite the month-long poll, and the ease of going to the voting place at Bayanihan Center.

She said Comelec will go to the extent of holding “Rock the Vote” concerts featuring popular bands to draw voters to the polling centers. These concerts could be held not only in Hong Kong but also in key cities in the Philippines.

Guanzon asked the media people for suggestions on  how a rock concert could further lift voter turnout.

Hong Kong has consistently taken the lead in voter turnout in all Philippine posts abroad. But Guanzon said she still wants to see voter turnout in Hong Kong to reach 60% and make the city a model for Filipino overseas voting.

Figures that the Consulate provided to Guanzon showed that the Filipino voters in Hong Kong are overwhelmingly women, at 70,080.

“It’s very important that the voters understand how important this election is for them, especially because they are women and they are the ones who earn income for their families and households. So, what’s happening in the economy should be an issue,” Guanzon said.

She asked the media to help encourage Filipino voters to vote because the issues that affect them are going to be the same: the economy, policies that affect them.

“You know our people vote based on personalities, so I think the job of the media is to really introduce the candidates’ programs and focus your questions on what laws they are planning to propose,” Guanzon said.

She said the upcoming election is particularly important since the move for a Charter change would ultimately be decided by the Senate.   

Guanzon also stressed that candidates should understand that people vote for them as senators believing they can do a good job making laws, and that they understand the law as well as the rights of citizens.

“For example, I heard some candidates talk about the death penalty,” she said. Putting the death penalty back in the Charter would mean the Philippine justice system did not work.

 

Guanzon andConsul General Tony Morales dancing with a church choir

She also said a candidate can say anything he wants to say, but the voters should choose a candidate who can make laws that will help boost the economy and improve the lives of the people.

Meeting leaders of the Filipino community afterwards, Guanzon repeated her concerns about the overseas voting turnout and the need for the OFWs to understand the significance of the senatorial election.

Remains of Filipina killed in Tai Po accident brought home

The Lees, Garcia and Laurel at the wake

By Daisy CL Mandap

For more than 20 years, Teresita Agina Hernandez had worked as a domestic worker in Hong Kong, and seemed to have liked it so much that even after all her four children had finished university, she decided to stay on.

But fate had other plans for her, for at exactly 6:56 on Oct. 29, Teresita, 55, was declared dead at Prince of Wales Hospital in Shatin, eight hours after she was hit by a private car on Ting Kok Road in Tai Po.



Teresita’s remains were brought home on Nov. 19, accompanied by her eldest and only daughter Marites Laurel, who had flown to Hong Kong from Ghana where she works as an accountant.

They were met at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila by Teresita’s three sons: Marlon, Marvin and Mark, as well as her estranged husband. From there they proceeded to their Mindoro hometown, where Teresita was buried on Saturday, Nov. 24.



According to Marites, Hong Kong police told her that they were still investigating the case. There were reportedly told that Teresita, who was hit at a pedestrian crossing, might have crossed while the traffic light was still red, but this has yet to be confirmed.

But whatever the cause of the accident, Teresita’s family was told they were entitled to compensation under the Traffic Accident Victims Assistance (TAVA) scheme, run by the Social Welfare Department.



They have also been advised by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office to apply for legal aid so they could pursue a separate claim against the insurers of the car that hit Teresita.

However, they could not apply for employee compensation, as this can be collected only from an employer if the worker had died due to an accident while at work, or due to a work-related illness.



As Teresita was killed on a Sunday, and on the street near her boarding house (and not at her workplace), her death could not be deemed as work-related.

Also, since she had been working for just over three years for her Korean employer, Lee Young-chun and his actress-wife Kathy, her family could not claim long service pay.



Despite this, the Lees had reportedly been extra generous to their helper’s family. They accommodated Marites at their Tai Kok Tsui home while she was preparing for the repatriation of her mother’s remains, and gave her an allowance plus financial help.

The couple also reportedly bought a white casket for Teresita at Marites’ request, and after the wake at Universal Funeral Parlor in Hunghom on Nov. 18, treated all the about 50 mourners to lunch.

Back in the Philippines, the family could claim a total of Php220,000 from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration as payout for death caused by accident and funeral expenses.

Marites related that her mother had been working for just herself for the past several years, as she and her siblings had already finished their studies, and were all gainfully employed.

Apart from her, one of her brothers, Marlon, is also working abroad, as an engineer in Taiwan, making the family quite well off.

Their youngest, Mark, was the only one left at their home in Quezon City where Teresita would live while on holiday in the Philippines, as he was still single.

According to Teresita’s cousin Gemma Garcia, Teresita provided mostly for her brood while working abroad, but her husband, from whom she had separated in 2000, also pitched in.

From all accounts, it was a family that was just waiting for a beloved family member to come home for good, but tragedy intervened.