Militant Filcom leaders threaten legal action vs Duterte supporter

By The SUN

Aries' Facebook post which Bayan covered with a 'fake news' tag

Two high-profile Hong Kong migrant leaders have threatened legal action against a fellow overseas Filipino worker for allegedly defaming them in a Facebook post, and targeting the organizations they belong to as part of a terror campaign.

A statement issued earlier tonight by Bayan Hong Kong and Macau was accompanied by a link to a Facebook post that depicted its chairperson, Eman Villanueva, and United Filipinos-Migrante HK chair Dolores Balladares Pelaez along with other Filipino militants as “salot sa lipunan.”

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The post was made on Jul 19 in the name of  Jeanette Angel Aries, an OFW who is said to be the leader of Emilio DDS (Duterte Diehard Supporters). The statement gave her real name as Jeanette Lopez.

In the picture showing Villanueva and Pelaez together, Aries accused them of “exacting funds from OFWs in Hong Kong and spreading fake news against the government.”

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The two were also branded as “fund collectors” for the Philippines’ left-wing groups, CPP-NDF-NPA. (Communist Party of the Philippines, National Democratic Front and New People’s Army).

“Our officers and members in Bayan Hong Kong and Macau, together with our friends and supporters, will lodge complaints against Lopez and her group both on Facebook and take actions against them through legal means,” said the statement.

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“Their brazen red tagging of progressive migrant leaders and organizations in Hong Kong should be exposed and condemned.”

The statement said Lopez and her followers have been targeting so-called progressive groups that have Hong Kong chapters, including Bayan, Migrante and Gabriela, in their hate campaign.

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Two years ago, another member of Emilio DDS called “Jenny” reportedly distributed pamphlets vilifying the left-leaning organizations, and even made vlogs condemning them.

The hate campaign reportedly intensified when Bayan and its aligned organizations started a widely supported campaign for the scrapping of the mandatory contribution to PhilHealth.

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“We even wrote to the Philippine Consulate calling their attention on this group’s malicious actions and unfounded accusations,” said the statement.

Bayan said Emilio DDS is emboldened to attack them because they are supported by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which was formed under the auspices of the Duterte administration.

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“Now, with the Anti-Terrorism Act in effect, the Emilio DDS faces no consequences even if their posts are false and malicious in nature, and even if their deeds endanger the lives of leaders and members of migrant organizations,” said the statement.

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Two Filipino students charged with classmate in $1.4m watch robbery

By Vir B. Lumicao

The Kowloon City magistrate denied bail to the 2 Filipino defendants

Two Hong Kong-born Filipino male students are each facing a charge of robbery in Kowloon City Court for allegedly attacking a man and snatching his watch worth more than $1 million.

Their Pakistani schoolmate has been charged with conspiracy to rob.

Defendants R.P. Bernardo, D.R. Banaag and A. Khan appeared today, Aug 4, before Magistrate Ada Yim for a bail review, but the prosecution read out in court an amended charge against the three.

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The robbery took place on Granville Road in Tsimshatsui on the evening of Jul 23, according to local news reports.

The prosecutor said that on an unspecified date and place, Bernardo and Banaag robbed a man of his expensive watch worth $1.4 million.

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A South China Morning Post report said that the watch was a limited edition Richard Mille timepiece and the victim owns a watch store.

According to the prosecution, the victim had just left his shop when Bernardo attacked the victim from behind. When the victim fell to the ground, Bernardo snatched his watch. The three fled the scene before police arrived.

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The prosecutor said the three defendants are schoolmates. Bernardo, a tall and chubby youth, is a Form 4 student who will be promoted to Form 5 this school year. Banaag, a shorter and leaner lad, is a Form 5 student who will be promoted to Form 6.

The lawyer for the two Filipinos said they were both born in Hong Kong and live with their parents, who are Hong Kong permanent residents.

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He said they have clear records but Bernardo has an outstanding snatching case in West Kowloon Court. As for the robbery, the lawyer said no weapon was used. The lawyer said the appropriate charge should have been snatching.

Banaag has two outstanding burglary cases and the lawyer said he was hired only to serve as a lookout.

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Khan has an outstanding case in Kowloon City Court for non-payment of goods and theft. His lawyer said Khan was a transport company clerk who claimed he was only paid by Bernardo to drive them to Tsimshatsui.

The lawyer representing Bernardo and Banaag said the former was offering $5,000 bail money, in addition to reporting daily to the Tung Chung police station. Banaag was offering a $6,000 bail money and was willing to report daily to the North Lantau police.                                                                                                                                                                                    

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Khan’s lawyer said the youth was offering a $40,000 bail money and his uncle, who was in court, would put up a $40,000 surety.

Magistrate Yim rejected the two Filipinos’ bail application, saying they were facing very serious offenses and there is a high risk they would abscond and commit further offenses. She said they can apply for bail at the Court of First instance.

The magistrate granted Khan’s bail application, but ordered him to pay his bail money and surrender his travel documents within 24 hours, in addition to complying with all the bail conditions.

The hearing was adjourned until Sept 21 for plea. Yim ordered Bernardo and Banaag to be remanded in custody.

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CG says, still no direct hiring for OFWs coming from Philippines

By Daisy CL Mandap

ConGen Tejada says all OFWs being hired from the Philippines will have to go through agencies

Consul General Raly Tejada has dashed expectations that direct hiring for all overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong has been revived.

“Actually there’s still no direct hire. The new system just revised the previous processing, which means, the contracts will go to HK immigration first before Polo,” said Congen Tejada.

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“For the new hires, they still need to go through agencies.”

He made the clarification one day after Labor Attache Melchor Dizon issued an advisory, saying that effective Aug 10 (Sunday), Polo will be implementing a new system for verifying employment contracts.

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The process starts with securing an employment visa from Hong Kong Immigration, before the contract and all supporting documents are presented to Polo for verification, and then on to the Consulate for the releasing.

Dizon said that the new procedure “shall apply to new hire, contract renewal, change of employer after mature or premature termination, or ‘break contract.’”

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OFW leader Eman Villanueva, who yesterday hailed the return of direct hire for all workers, was quick to label the explanation as a “u-turn” by the Polo chief, possibly because of pressure from agency groups.

“U-turn yan,” Villanueva said. “There was no mention of ‘employment agency’ in any part of the advisory.”

He added, “The advisory is very clear. Walang sign na may na-miss na point at wala din namang sign na the advisory was addressed to agencies.”

The Polo advisory makes no mention of employment agencies, says Villanueva

Villanueva said the turnaround will cause outrage among those who have started preparing to get their family and friends hired directly from the Philippines, which was an option made available to employers up until the early 2000s.

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Thomas Chan, head of the Hong Kong Union of Employment Agencies, said his group was told during a meeting with Labatt Dizon earlier today, that all hiring from the Philippines must still go through accredited agencies.

That includes new hires and current FDWs whose contracts were terminated, and were not allowed by Immigration to remain in Hong Kong to process a new employment contract.

“For those terminated, if Immigration allows them to stay in Hong Kong, then it is under the category of ‘transfer’; if not, then it is new hiring from the Philippines,” he said.

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Chan himself had initially thought that going through employment agencies in hiring Filipino workers had become optional under the Polo advisory, and had warned of difficulties being encountered by workers if they processed their contracts themselves.

But the initial purpose of their meeting, said Chan, was his request for help in getting the Hong Kong government to extend to one week the validity period for the swab Covid-19 test that OFWs flying in from the Philippines must undergo.

Many workers and their employers reportedly found the 72-hour limit prior to boarding unrealistic, as most testing centers in Manila could only guarantee results after 3-5 days.

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“Since 25 July (when the new pre-boarding requirements for travelers from the Philippines were imposed) there has been no deployment of workers by my members and most other agencies in Hong Kong,” said Chan.

He said the Consulate and Polo both agreed to endorse his group's request to Hong Kong authorities.

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2 Filipinas who used fake documents in UK job application jailed for 6.5 months

By Vir B. Lumicao

The Filipinas were sentenced in Shatin magistracy by a District Court judge

Two Filipina domestic workers who had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiring to use forged documents in applying for a British work visa were sentenced today, Aug 4, to six months and two weeks in jail.

Criselda Bantasan, 33, and Cristy Par, 49, who had been out on bail since they were brought to court, were immediately taken into custody.

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Their lawyers had appealed for suspended sentences, citing their guilty plea and their having helped investigators to arrest and prosecute the alleged mastermind of the fake documents scam.

District Court Judge Li Chi-ho, who moved the sentencing to Shatin court, acknowledged the evidence that the two Filipinas gave during the trial of the alleged mastermind, a certain Ms Chan, in June.

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But he pointed out that Chan was acquitted after the trial judge expressed doubts about their evidence.

Solicitor Teddy Lam, defense counsel for Bantasan, pleaded in the previous hearing for a lenient sentence for his client, citing the maid’s inability to work for the past 18 months while the case was pending in the courts.

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Lam said his client was a victim who lost a fortune when she applied for a job in Britain for which the Manila-based syndicate that recruited her had produced the fake documents.

Lawyer Vivian Chan also sought “the most lenient sentence” for Par, so she could continue working for her employers and earn money to support her parents.

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Chan said her client’s employers, who had been attending the hearings regularly, were willing to employ her again.

Judge Li cited two similar cases in which the judges had adopted three years as starting point for the sentences. But in the case of Bantasan and Par, the judge started off with a 13-month sentence, then halved it after giving discounts for their guilty plea and mitigation.

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After the judge left the courtroom, the two maids were escorted by court security staff  into the dock, where their lawyers spoke with them for a while, before they were led away.

The two had been released on bail since Feb 22, their second appearance in court since their arrest in January 2018.

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Bantasan was charged with conspiring with Chan to use forged documents after she submitted on Apr 1, 2016, fake personal papers of her employer to back her application for work visa at the UK Visa Application Centre at Leighton Centre in Causeway Bay.

Par was also alleged to have conspired with Chan and other unknown persons to submit on May 30, 2016, copies of fake papers purportedly belonging to her employer to the UK VAC staff to support her visa application.

The British Consulate General reported the case to the police after discovering that the documents, including their employers’ bank statements and passport copies, that the pair submitted were spurious.

The documents were later found out to have been produced by a syndicate in Manila specializing in faking documents to support job applications for overseas.

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HK posts 80 new Covid-19 cases, including 2 Filipina DHs in quarantine

By The SUN

 

The Filipinas tested positive while in quarantine, 12 days after flying in from Manila

Two Filipina domestic workers who tested positive on their 12^th day of quarantine were among 80 new confirmed cases reported today, Aug 4,  by Hong Kong health officials.

According to Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection, the two Filipinas were among five imported cases today, which also included an air crew of Ethiopian Airlines who flew in from Manila, on the way to Addis Ababa.

The two other imported cases were another flight crew who came from Belgium, and a returnee from Russia.

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The Filipina DHs would have flown in from Manila on Jul 23, two days before the new requirement for pre-boarding testing for Covid-19 took effect.

Still, it would have meant them testing negative on arrival at Hong Kong airport, then turning positive only 12 days after.

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The total Covid-19 tally in HK now is 3,670, but less than a third of the patients are still in 19 public hospitals, and the treatment facilities in Lei Yue Mun and AsiaWorld-Expo.

Of the active cases, 43 are in critical condition, 52 are serious, and 1,203 are stable.

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The death toll stands at 37, after three more elderly patients were reported to have died in the past 24 hours.

The latest fatality was an 85-year-old man with a chronic heart disease who passed away in Princess Margaret Hospital at about 3pm today. The patient was previously admitted to Yan Chai Hospital for swollen feet, and was discharged after three days, on Jul 30.

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At Yan Chai, he stayed in a medical ward with 10 other patients, who have been listed as close contacts and will be tested. Two medical staff in the ward are under medical supervision.

Earlier, an 82-year-old woman confirmed as Covid-19 positive passed away at Queen Elizabeth Hospital at 5:29 am today. Another 82-year-old woman died at Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) at 3:10 pm yesterday.

Dr Chuang said that of the 75 local cases, 43 were linked to previous infections, while 32 have unknown sources. Most, or 36, or the linked cases involved family members and friends who gathered together.

 

10 cases have been linked to wet markets, and an expert will test samples to find out more about the outbreak

New cases emerged from two wet markets. At the Hung Hom public market, two sellers of dried goods tested positive, along with a fish stall owner in Tok Wa Wan.

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Chuang said both markets will be closed early today for disinfection. Microbiologist Dr Yuen Kwok-yung have visited both markets to analyze samples.

A total of 10 cases involving stall owners in wet markets, including 4 fish vendors, have been detected so far.

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Two more cases were linked to the multi-level marketing company called Star Global on Argyle Street, Kowloon. Three others tested preliminary positive.

One of the new confirmed cases joined a company outing in Cheung Chau, which was linked to previous infections.

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