By Vir B. Lumicao
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| E.G.S. in quarantine - she hopes everything will go smoothly this time |
A Filipina domestic helper who was put on a flight back to
The 35-year-old woman, E.G.S. happily informed The SUN about
her return, and said she was spending her 21-day quarantine in a hotel in
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E.G.S. admitted to being a bit nervous when she passed through Immigration, and was relieved when she got through without a hitch.
“Ang laking ginhawa at worth it ang lahat ng pagod nang makalusot ako sa Immigration para kunin ang aking mga bagahe,” she said.
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(It was such a relief, and was worth all the trouble after I got through Immigration to collect my luggage).
After her swab test, she and four other Filipinas were taken away from the airport in a van, and taken to their hotels.
E.G.S. said her employment agency in
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It was Placewell International Services in Ermita that sent
her and 12 other new hires to Hong Kong on Sept 9 last year after receiving
their certificates of negative test results from the
The group members were swab-tested at the Hong Kong International Airport upon arrival and 10 of them, including E.G.S., were found infected within days - five at the airport, three the next day, and two days later.
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They were sent to various hospitals across
The first to be removed from Hong Kong after her discharge
from
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Immigration officers said at the time that the workers were removed
and sent back to
E.G.S. said she paid Placewell Php45,000 for that botched
deployment, so, when she returned to
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“Hindi na ako siningil kasi yun ang usapan namin. Hindi naman din nila ibinalik yung pera na ibinayad namin kahit hindi pa kami nakapagsimulang mag-work,” she said.
(They didn’t charge me because that was what we had agreed on, as they didn’t reimburse the money we paid them even if we never even got to start working.)
She said she was overjoyed when the new employer hired her because she was worried about repaying the money for her placement that she borrowed from a lending company. She said she signed up for a loan of Php50,000 but actually got only Php44,000, which she was supposed to pay in six monthly installments totaling PhP68,168.
The mother of two boys, aged 12 and one year and five months,
said despite the new job secured for her as soon as she arrived in
During that time, she had no income but sold frozen goods bought with funds collected from generous overseas Filipino workers by Marites Palma and her group Social Justice for Migrant Workers.
But since their house was far from commercial areas, E.G.S. said she barely made money from her small business, and her family ended up eating some of the food that she was selling.
When her visa finally arrived, E.G.S. said she was penniless
and could not travel to
Now halfway into her quarantine, E.G.S. fights boredom by watching cooking classes on TV, doing zumba dancing or calling her quarantined friends.
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| E.G.S. is grateful for the support she continues to get from fellow OFWs in Hong Kong |
Last Sunday,
She will have her second swab test tomorrow, Feb 9, and a third on her 19th day in quarantine. She is keeping her fingers crossed that nothing untoward will happen to her again.
For now, her only worry is that her employment visa will expire on the day she ends her quarantine on Feb. 19. She hopes her agency will help her with this so she could start serving her new employer.
“Sana para na talaga sa akin ang amo ko na ito sir... nang makapagbayad na sa mga utang. Ayyyy! Buhay sa Pinas kahirap,” she sighed. (I hope this employer is really meant for me sir…so I’d be able to repay my debts. Ah! How tough life in ’Pinas is.)
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