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Pinoy DH in hot water for drug possession and bike theft

Posted on 06 October 2020 No comments

By Vir B. Lumicao 

Fernandez admitted stealing a bicycle on Lamma while on bail for drug possession

A Filipino domestic worker who was arrested in Central for drug possession in February this year compounded his trouble when he stole a bicycle valued at $3,100 on Lamma Island at the end of June.

The 36-year-old defendant, J. Fernandez, pleaded guilty in Eastern Court earlier today,  Oct 6, to two counts of possession of dangerous drugs and one count of theft.

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Magistrate Bina Chainrai ordered Fernandez remanded in custody pending a drug abuse report and sentencing on Oct 20.

The prosecution said that at 11:49pm on Feb 11, police officers conducting a patrol at Central Pier 4 saw the defendant suspiciously trying to evade them.

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When the officers stopped and searched him, they found two small plastic bags with about 7 grams of a substance that contained methamphetamine hydrochloride, or the drug commonly known as “ice” or “shabu”

He was arrested and taken to the Central Police Station. In the interview room, police allegedly found 0.23g of cannabis (marijuana) resin wrapped in a tissue and hidden in his underpants.

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The prosecution said the defendant admitted he bought the drugs from a stranger in Lantau Island for his own use. He was charged with two counts of drug possession and released on police bail.

On the evening of Jun 30, Fernandez got into trouble again when he made off with a red bicycle parked about 30 meters from his home in Yung Shue Long Village, Lamma, the prosecution said.

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The owner, David S. Balman, reportedly parked the bicycle on the roadside around 8pm, securing it with a lock. When he returned at 8:30pm, the bike was gone.

A resident in the neighborhood who saw Fernandez take the bicycle reported the case to the police around 7:30am the next day.

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The owner initially was not keen on pressing charges against the defendant because he was going away but the police convinced him to file a complaint. At 4:30pm on the same day, the defendant was arrested and he admitted the offense.

After Fernandez admitted to the drug and theft charges, the defense lawyer requested to adjourn the case for two weeks to obtain a drug report. He applied for bail extension, but Chainrai refused, citing the prosecution’s objections.

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Gathering restrictions to stay as 8 new infections reported, 3 with unknown source

Posted on No comments

By The SUN 

CE Lam says the rise in the number of infections with no known source is causing concern

Hong Kong government officials have announced that social distancing measures imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus will remain in place for at least one more week amid fears the local outbreak is worsening.

A total eight new infections were reported today, Oct 6, five of them locally acquired, and three were of unknown sources.

The three imported cases included a newly arrived Filipina domestic worker who flew in aboard Hong Kong Airlines, a seafarer who came from Germany via Turkey, and a returnee from Russia.

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The new Covid-19 cases brought Hong Kong’s total tally to 5,133 with 105 related deaths and 4,875 recoveries.

The first to announce the decision to keep the public gathering limit to four persons was Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who spoke to the media this morning ahead of the Executive Council meeting.

CE Lam said that while the third wave of infections has eased, there’s concern about the spike in the number of local cases with unknown sources. This week, she said that out of 10 local cases, seven had untraceable sources. The week before, there was only one or 2 such cases.

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 “So we need to remain vigilant,” she said. “The government will remain on high alert.”

 This means, according to her, that there will be no further relaxation of the gathering restrictions for the time being.

Food and Health Secretary Dr. Sophia Chan made the announcement official at a later news conference.  She said that there were signs that the outbreak could worsen due to the recent increase in the number of cases that could not be traced.

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“Further to the lowering of the number of such cases, it has not continued to decrease but instead it has increased,” Dr Chan said.

She further said that the impact of the recent long holiday weekend, when a large number of people went out of their homes, still needs to be assessed.

Ocean Park had a full quota during the 4-day holiday

“We are very closely monitoring the situation. That’s why we want to maintain by and large in the coming week our social distancing measures.”

At least two of today’s untraceable cases involved local residents who went out for social gatherings and meals on Oct. 1, the first day of the long holiday to mark National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.

One of them was a 33-year-old unemployed man who gathered with 16 family members in a relative’s a house in Whampoa Gardens in Hung Hom. The man, who lives in North Point, went out again on Oct 2 to see a movie in City Plaza, and ate at “Sour and Spicy” noodle house in Fortress Hill.

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Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said the man’s 16 relatives who had a meal with him have been sent to a quarantine centre.

Another patient, a 22-year-old student in an online school, had a slight fever on Oct 1, but went to a noodle shop in Tuen Mun, and had dessert with five friends in Yuen Long. During the incubation period, he often went to a gym in Tuen Mun.

Dr Chuang said all his friends who had a meal with him have been sent to quarantine.

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The third case with no known source is a 43-year-old waiter at La Soleil Vietnamese Restaurant at Regal Park Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. He felt unwell on Oct 2, but still went to work briefly the next day. Six of his colleagues who ate and shared a rest lounge with him have been quarantined.

Dr Chuang advised those who visited the restaurants linked to the three cases and have started to feel unwell, to contact the CHP immediately.

The two other local cases include a Thai female visitor who shared a hostel with a compatriot who tested positive earlier. The other one was confirmed while under quarantine, and was linked to an imported case.

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Nepal Air flights suspended after 6 passengers test positive on arrival

Posted on 05 October 2020 No comments

 By The SUN 

Nepal Air has been barred from flying to HK until Oct 17

Eleven new confirmed cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Hong Kong today, Oct 5. Among these were seven imported cases, six of whom had just flown in on the same Nepal Airlines flight.

This prompted Hong Kong health authorities to stop the airline from flying into the city for two weeks, or from Oct 4 to 17.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said the authorities couldn’t tell why there were so many infected passengers on the flight from Nepal, so they decided to sanction the airline, similar to what was done with Air India previously.

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Nepal and India are both classified as high risk countries for the coronavirus, so all passengers traveling from both places must produce a negative result for a swab test for Covid-19 before being allowed to depart for Hong Kong.

The other imported case was a returnee from India who flew in via Dubai.

Among the four local cases was a 38-year-old female visitor from Thailand who arrived in mid-March. Another Thai woman who  previously lived with her tested preliminary positive.

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Including the two, four women from Thailand have tested positive or preliminary positive since Oct. 1.

The first case in the cluster was a tourist who also arrived in mid-March and had moved to three different lodging houses in Kowloon before being found infected.

The second was a 27-year-old Thai female resident who was found infected yesterday. During contact tracing, the housewife said she had gone shopping in Tsim Sha Tsui with a compatriot who tested positive on her return to Thailand.

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Today, Chuang said the housewife was found to have lied because the friend she had shopped with was staying in a hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui with four other Thais. This friend was the 35-year-old who tested preliminary positive yesterday.

Chuang said health officials are considering whether or not to prosecute the housewife under quarantine regulations for being dishonest. This was after Hong Kong health authorities had contacted their counterparts in Thailand to get more information on the patient’s friend who, it turned out, never left.

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The rise in the number of Thai nationals getting infected has caused concern.

“We are worried about a possible spread among the Thai community during their gatherings, so we are liaising with the Thai consulate hoping they can help distribute bottles [for virus tests] to its nationals,” said Dr Chuang.

Separately, officials have continued to track down patrons and staff of the China Secret bar in Tsim Sha Tsui, which a 22-year-old student had visited before testing positive on Saturday.

The Thai Consulate is being asked to help distribute specimen bottles to its nationals in HK


The female tourist from Thailand who tested positive on Thursday had also reportedly visited the bar, although Chuang said the information has yet to be verified.

Four staff and seven customers of the bar have been located so far, and most have been put under quarantine. CHP said it was looking for two more people who had been there at relevant times.

The new cases pushed the total tally in Hong Kong to 5,124 with 105 related deaths.

Of the four local cases, only one was classified as untraceable. The patient is a 46-year-old female clerk who lives in Tsing Yi and works in Kwai Chung.

According to Chuang, the clerk did not go out often, but on Sept 25, a day after developing a cough, she had a buffet meal at Gateway Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. The woman said she wore a mask while getting food.

Dr Lau Ka-hin, chief manager of the Hospital Authority, said 117 confirmed cases are still undergoing treatment at 17 public hospitals. Among these, 11 are in critical condition, eight are stable, and the remaining 98 are in stable condition.

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HK employer admits operating online sex service with Filipina helper

Posted on No comments

By Vir B. Lumicao 

Palpal-latoc (with black backpack) leaves court after pleading guilty to 4 offences

A Hong Kong employer and her Filipina helper have both pleaded guilty in District Court today, Oct 5, to conspiring to live on the earnings of prostitution for running an online sex booking service out of a luxury Mid-Levels flat.

Filipina helper Jo-an E. Palpal-latoc, 45, also admitted three charges of charges of money laundering by handling a total of $24.7 million in proceeds from the prostitution ring, which went directly to bank accounts controlled by her employer.

Her employer, Heidi Wong Pui-ting, 68, pleaded guilty to only two of the laundering counts, and denied the third one, concerning an undetermined amount of money deposited in her American Express account in Macau.

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The prosecution said in all, $32.2 million was deposited in an account in Fubon Bank and two in HSBC in the name of Firstmount Investments, which Wong controlled as the company's sole shareholder and director.

Judge Amanda Woodcock set the sentencing of the two for the admitted charges on Monday, Oct 12.  Wong will be put on trial later on the third money laundering case that she denied.

Prosecution lawyer Andrew Raffell told the judge it could take time to complete the investigation as American Express was delaying the sharing of documents relating to the credit card payments by customers of the online sex booking services.

The employer and her maid will be sentenced at District Court on Oct 12

The guilty pleas ended nearly two years of court hearings that began in November 2018 after police busted the operation six months earlier.

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Wong, Palpal-latoc, and a second domestic helper, Jeanette Gallego, were arrested when police raided the employer’s flat on Tavistock II, Tregunter Path, on May 15. 

In a police statement, Palpal-latoc said she and Gallego were told by Wong to answer client calls and contact the agents of prostitutes. This began a month after she was hired as a helper in late April 2009.

Gallego pleaded guilty to a charge of living on the earnings of prostitution on Oct 29 last year and was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

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Raffel, by way of background, said both Wong and Palpal-latoc had clear records.

He said Wong was born in China and worked as a clerk in an import-export business after coming to Hong Kong in 1969. She married her husband, a Hong Kong businessman, in 1979.

Palpal-latoc on the other hand, went to college in the Philippines and came to Hong Kong in 2009 to work as a helper. She is a single mother of two children who are now adults.

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In mitigation, Charlotte Draycott SC, who appeared for Wong, revealed that her client was once a sex worker herself, and had provided sexual services until her advancing age made it difficult for her to continue.

After her marriage, Wong’s husband reportedly found out about her being a prostitute, and as result refused to sleep with her so they had no children, but the two continued to live together.

Draycott claimed Wong had not run the business for years because she was struggling with depression and the onset or dementia.

The lawyer also argued that Wong had conducted an “honest and decent business” out in the open, and engaged consenting adults while earning $2.5 million a year.

Given this background, Draycott said her client was different from other offenders because “prostitution is a crime without victims, a crime that will carry on because men and women want to do it.”

Mohamed Shah, counsel for Palpal-Latoc, said his client should not have been charged with money laundering because she and Gallego were just following Wong’s orders.

Shah argued that Palpal-latoc, who was earning a measly $4,310 a month, was a victim, as she had been told that prostitution was legal in Hong Kong and it was alright for her to earn money on the side.

“[Wong] was the mastermind and the boss,” Shah said, adding the employer committed a gross breach of trust by getting Palpal-latoc involved in the illicit operation.

He said Wong paid the Filipina helpers only around $1,000 each month on top of their salaries, a very tiny amount compared with the more than $2.5 million a year that the employer earned from the operation.

Shah upset Draycott when he disclosed that Wong had tried to get Palpal-latoc not to plead guilty, using another woman from the Philippines to offer $300,000 to the Filipina to do so.

Draycott protested, saying she had to protect her client. Judge Woodcock backed her up.

Shah said Wong had taken advantage of the helper, who had to bear eight months in custody before being allowed to finally post bail.

Woodcock ordered Wong remanded in custody and extended Palpal-latoc’s bail pending the sentencing.

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Complainants in alleged Php1M investment scam advised to go to police

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By Daisy CL Mandap 

Caguioa (with glasses) meets up with a claimant her before going to the Consulate on Sept 20

Hong Kong-based Filipino domestic workers who claim to have lost about Php600,000 in a “double your money” scam are considering taking their complaint to the police after the woman behind the ploy appeared to have reneged on a repayment promise.

The two sides were supposed to meet for a second time at the Consulate on Sunday, Oct 4, to work out a deal before assistance to nationals chief Consul Paul Saret, but neither side showed up.

The Filipina who admitted to taking their money, Ailyn Caguioa, sent word that she couldn’t make it to the meeting. The main complainant, MC, had to go to a doctor after being severely bitten by her employer’s cat, while the 21 other claimants all said they weren’t free that day.


Consul Saret says Caguioa must refund the money of her victims as soon as possible

Consul Saret said he had called the victims as early as the previous Sunday, and they said they were discussing with Caguioa about the amounts that she owed each of them.

“They said they would come yesterday but they didn’t,” he said, adding he was concerned because Caguioa hardly showed remorse even after admitting to telling lies to entice the claimants to put their money in her supposed investment scheme.

Caguioa had insisted that she did not benefit from the huge sums that went into her get-rich-quick scheme in just over a month, which she said was all used paying those who managed to cash in quickly on their supposed investments. 

In their first encounter before Consul Saret on Sept 20, Caguioa said she was willing to repay all the money that she took, but on installment, as she could only promise her own salary as a domestic helper to pay them back.

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The diminutive Caguioa did not reject claims several other Filipinos, including those in the Philippines and migrant workers in other countries, had also put in money in her “Invest, Wait Earn” scheme so that the total claim against her could top Php1million.

On being told this, Consul Saret said it did not seem fair that Caguioa could only promise to repay everyone using only her salary as it could take her years to do so. There was also the possibility that she would just stop paying them altogether after the issue had cooled down.

Saret suggested Caguioa look for other sources of funds so she could repay a big chunk of what she owed in one go, and then appeal to them to allow her to pay the balance in monthly installments as she suggested.

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The ATN head said that if Caguioa couldn’t give back the money of the complainants, the Consulate would be powerless to stop them taking the case to the police as there appeared to be a clear element of fraud in the case.

The complainants said in their written statements that they were enticed to part with their money after Caguioa promised to double, or even triple, their money in just a week or 10 days.

They said Caguioa, though soft-spoken in person, was very convincing in her approach, even sending them copies of her Hong Kong ID and passport as proof she was not out to con them.

   
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M.C. said Caguioa even promised to help them all get rich like her, as she claimed to have made a lot of money from an online investment, as well as various businesses in the Philippines, including a water refilling station, an air ticketing, and remittance companies.

At the Consulate meeting, Caguioa admitted all these were a lie she concocted at the instruction of an OFW in UAE who also allegedly told her to set up the investment scam.

The Facebook page created for Caguioa's investors is run by Maricel

She said the OFW called Maricel reportedly assured her that she could make money immediately from using “walwal”, or the act of spreading word about the supposed investment to lure as many people as possible to get into the web of deceit.

Maricel also reportedly advised Caguioa to adopt a “pay-in, pay-out” approach to lure more people in fast.

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What she did not realize, said Caguioa, was that Maricel would use all the money she supposedly received as investment to pay back her supposed investors within a week, so that in less than a month, the pyramid-like structure collapsed.

Caguioa said she ended up owing a lot of people money she never received. Worse, Maricel is now claiming more than Php230,000 from her.

Caguioa said she wanted to clear her name as she had been disowned by her family who were all exposed on social media from the bashings made by her investors, and she needed to work in peace so she could pay them all back.

But she still insisted the scheme had gone bust because her investors did not wait for the right time to claim their earnings.

Saret told the group the Consulate could only help those who are in Hong Kong, as it does not have the power to represent those who are outside its jurisdiction. He suggested those in other countries who are also chasing Caguioa for their money should consult the Philippine embassy or consulate nearest them, or file a case in the Philippines.

But as her creditors, especially those in Hong Kong, had readily entrusted their money to her in full, she should repay them in the same manner.

To help ease the repayment, all the Hong Kong claimants who each lost between a few thousand pesos to more than Php100,000 in the scam, agreed to just ask for just the actual money they had put in, and not include the stupendous interest promised them by Caguioa.

They also agreed to let Caguioa pay part of the money by installment, but only after she had paid them the bulk of what they lost.

The two sides were advised to talk among themselves first, then go back to the Consulate once they agree on a repayment schedule.

But as it turned out, Caguioa was not that all anxious to make amends with her victims. Her latest offer was to pay them using only half her salary each month, a process that, even if she remained true to her word, would take all of six years.

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22 Pinoys, including pub operator, held over sale of unlicensed liquor

Posted on 04 October 2020 No comments

By Vir B. Lumicao 

Of the 22 Filipinos arrested, 20 were women

A police spokeswoman told The SUN that the raid took place around 7pm on Oct 3.  Of the 22 Filipinos arrested, 20 were women. The 18 others were of various nationalities, the officer said.

The operator was reportedly held for selling unlicensed liquor, while the rest were booked for drinking the unlicensed alcohol.

Up until noon today, all those arrested were still in police custody as an investigation was ongoing.

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But as of 6:15pm, the police said all the 40 arrested persons, including the operator, had been released on police bail.

No charges have yet been filed, the spokeswoman said.

A video clip shared in a group chat on messenger showed police officers making the arrested persons line up on one side of the alley.

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“Hands on the shoulder, hands on the shoulder,” an officer was heard instructing them.

A check with shop owners in the building identified the raided pub as one belonging to a Filipino who runs several karaoke bars in the alleys. One said it was an open secret that several establishments in the area sell liquor illegally.

Under Regulation 25A of the Dutiable Commodities (Liquor) Regulations, businesses cannot sell liquor for consumption in their premises if they are not licensed to do so.

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Regulation 32 of the same law prohibits any person from drinking liquor in the unlicensed premises.

Anyone drinking liquor in an unlicensed establishment can be arrested and fined

The manager of the unlicensed premises may be prosecuted for violating the licensing requirement for liquor sale, and if convicted, faces a maximum fine of $1 million and imprisonment for two years.

Those caught drinking the unlicensed liquor may be fined up to $2,000 on a summary conviction.

The raid came just hours after police and officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) conducted joint inspections of 40 catering premises, including dai pai dongs, in Sai Kung and Sham Shui Po.

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Following the inspections, officers initiated prosecution against seven business operators for violating social distancing regulations.

These anti-epidemic measures include: the number of customers at any premises must not exceed half of its normal seating capacity, no more than four persons may be seated together at one table at catering premises; a mask must be worn at all times within the premises, except when the person is consuming food or drink; and body temperature screening must be conducted before the person is allowed to enter the catering premises and hand sanitizers must be provided.

Licensees and operators found to have contravened the regulations face a maximum fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for six months.

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