OV daily tally dips to 700

By Daisy CL Mandap

  

Thousands of Filipinos descend on Bayanihan on Sundays but not on weekdays 

The daily turnout in the ongoing overseas voting in Hong Kong for the 2022 presidential election in the Philippines dropped to below 1,000 for the first time on Monday.

According to Consul General Raly Tejada, the number of voters for the day was in the “low 700s” but enough to surpass the 2019 turnout with 14 days to go.”

For the mid-term election that year, more than 36,000 voters cast their ballots, or 42% of the 87,441 registered voters.

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With two more weeks to go, which include two Sundays and two statutory holidays when foreign domestic workers who make up the bulk of the voters can take the day off and vote, the running tally now is already at least 36,400.

There is enough time to raise the total turnout by the end of the election period on May 9 to way past the record set in the last presidential election in 2016, when 43,396 Filipinos, or 49% of all registered voters, cast their ballots. 

That election resulted in President Rodrigo R Duterte being elected along with Vice President Leni G. Robredo, who ran under an opposing slate.

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Congen Tejada said he hopes for a smoother flow of voters now that all 10 precincts with their corresponding vote counting machines are up and running again.

Meanwhile, Consul Robert Quintin who has been deputized by the Commission on Elections to oversee the overseas voting in Hong Kong, says he is aware of only one election protest being filed so far.

It was made by a female voter who claimed her vote for president was not reflected in the receipt that she got after casting her ballot. However, her votes for all other positions were counted.

Consul Quintin said the voter admitted before the special board of election inspectors (SBEI) in her precinct as well as poll watchers who were present that she made an error in shading. She filed a protest nevertheless.

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After leaving the polling station at Bayanihan Centre, however, the voter went on Facebook to denounce the supposed irregularity. 

Similar protests were filed in previous elections, but not one has been resolved in the voters’ favor.

These include claims that their receipt showed a different candidate being voted instead of the one they chose, another of ballots being pre-shaded, and one other of receiving notice of over-vote did not.

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Overseas, similar complaints have been posted on social media, with the latest being a claim from a voter in New Zealand about her ballot not having the name of presidential candidate Leni Robredo.

The face or identity of the voter was not shown, however, but only of the supposedly faulty ballot.

Comelec has disputed this claim, saying ballots are printed in batches of 1,000 so there should be at least 999 others that had been misprinted if this were true.

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Pinay ligtas sa kulong sa kasong ilegal na pagtatrabaho

Shatin Court, kung saan dininig ang kaso ng Pilipina.

Isang Pilipinang domestic helper ang nakaligtas sa kulong kanina sa Sha Tin Court, samantalang ang kanyang employer ay ipinakulong nang dalawang buwan matapos na mahuli siyang nagtatrabaho sa restaurant nito.

Si Rogelyn L. Panday, 42 taong gulang, ay nauna nang sinampahan ng pitong magkakaparehong kaso ng “breach of condition of stay”, matapos siyang makitang nagtatrabaho sa isang Thai restaurant sa Shau Kei Wan sa pitong iba-ibang araw mula Nov. 15, 2021  hanggang Jan 3, 2022.

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Pero iniurong ng taga-usig ang anim sa mga kaso na unang inihain noong Feb. 28.

Sa natitirang kaso, kung saan nahuli si Panday noong Jan 3, 2022, ay umamin siya sa paratang.

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Pinarusahan siya ng dalawang buwang pagkakakulong, pero ito ay sinuspindi ng 24 na buwan. Ibig sabihin, hindi siya ikukulong maliban na lang kung lumabag siyang muli sa batas sa susunod na dalawang taon.

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Pero hindi pinalampas ni Acting Principal Magistrate David Cheung Chi-wai ang amo ni Panday na si Wong Ka Chi Utumaru, na  kinasuhan kasama ang isang Indonesian, si Jariya Saiyarueang, sa salang pagpapatrabaho sa Pilipino ng ilegal. 

Ang dalawa ay mga amo ni Panday na dapat sana ay sa bahay nila sa Shau Kei Wan lang nakapirmi, pero pinagtrabaho din nila sa kanilang restaurant. 

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Ang krimen ay paglabag sa Section 17I (1 (a) at 17T (5) ng Immigration Ordinance. Ayon sa batas na ito, ang pinakamatas na arusa sa paglabag sa mga probisyon nito ay multang aabot sa $350,000 at pagkakakulong ng tatlong taon.

Sa pagdinig ng kaso ay inurong ng tagausig ang kaso laban kay Jariya, pero itinuloy ang kay Wong.

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19 schools report positive Covid results as caseload steady

By The SUN 

Chuang says no Covid outbreak in schools has been detected

The Centre for Health Protection reported 431 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, two more  than on the previous day.

According to CHP’s Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, among the new cases were 19 involving students and teachers, who are all required to present a negative result for a Covid-19 test before being allowed into schools.

The schools reported a case each, including five confirmed by PCR tests and 14 through rapid antigen tests.

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Among those who took a self-test, eight were confirmed on Monday, four on Sunday and two last Saturday. Five of them were due to return to school today while five were in class last week.

Chuang said it's believed the patients contracted the virus in the community rather than on campus.

She said that none of the schools has reported any outbreak and the infected people had not gone to school after testing positive. In this case, officials will just have to continue observing the situation.

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Of the infections 16 were imported from overseas, including a returning resident who tested positive 12 days after arriving from Nepal.

The patient who had two doses of a Covid vaccine in April last year, was confirmed positive in Nepal on Feb 1.

He arrived in Hong Kong on Apr 12 and after 12 days with no symptoms he tested positive with no symptoms and a Ct value between 19 and 27, indicating a high viral load.

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Authorities will carry out genetic sequencing to determine if the case is imported or whether it is a re-positive one.

Of the 16 imported cases, 11 tested positive on arrival, and five during the seven-day hotel quarantine. The patients flew in from Taiwan, Singapore and Qatar.

The newly confirmed cases took Hong Kong’s total tally from the Omicron outbreak to 1.189 million, with 9,054 related deaths.

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Dr Lau Ka-hin of the Hospital Authority said 11 additional deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, involving five men and six women aged 72 to 95.

Six of them were residents of elderly care homes, and six had no record of vaccination.

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HK on way to record OV turnout with 35,600 votes cast for far

By Daisy CL Mandap

 

More people were allowed to go up to Bayanihan, allowing the queues to move much faster

With 15 days to go still in the overseas voting for the 2022 Philippine presidential election, Hong Kong has already recorded a total of 35,600 ballots cast. That accounts for 38% of the 93,265 Filipinos who are registered to vote here.

According to Consul General Raly Tejada, more than 4,600 people turned up at the Bayanihan Centre to vote Sunday, adding to the more than 31,000 who had cast their ballots since voting began on Apr 10.

The day’s tally was lower than the more than 5,000 recorded last Sunday, but still managed to bring up the numbers at a far higher level than that for the same period in the last presidential election held in 2016.

Even more surprising was the quick pace of voting during the day. As in the past two Sundays, a long queue had formed outside Bayanihan before the polling opened, but it had all but disappeared by around noon.

A long line of voters could be seen shortly after the polls opened at 8am

This was partly due to the restoration of all 10 precincts with the corresponding vote counting machines in each, unlike the previous Sunday when two of the machines had conked out, resulting in voters having to wait for up to six hours to complete the process.

On the first Sunday, only five VCMs were in operation in line with a directive from the Commission on Elections that the Consulate was forced to cut the queuing less than four hours after voting had begun.

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Apart from having all 10 precincts up and running, the Consulate also decided to open Bayanihan’s spacious community hall to voters so far more could go up and enter the polling station, instead of lining up under the searing sun on Victoria Road.

By around 3pm, even the queues for voter verification had already disappeared that many people who were campaigning outside decided to call it a day and headed to a park nearby.

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“I hope we would see the same voting trend in the coming Sundays,” Congen Tejada said.

This was how it looked inside Bayanihan by around 3pm (CG's photo)

Asked if he sees the daily tally going up to as much as the 7,000 posted in previous elections, Congen Tejada said all that he is after now is a record voter turnout overall.

 “Na disperse at na distribute na yung maraming botante ng Sundays sa weekdays. Habulin na lang natin ang total,” he said.

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(A lot of those who would normally vote on Sundays had been dispersed on weekdays. Let’s just go for a record total turnout).

Indeed, this year’s election has seen a steady stream of people going to Bayanihan even on weekdays in response to repeated pleas by the Consulate, which has been under pressure to show the host government  that the strict pandemic restrictions would be observed as far as practicable, even during the voting.

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As a result, the daily tally has not gone down to below 1,000 so far, unlike in past overseas vote where the number often dropped to the low three digits on weekdays.

If the trend continues, this year’s turnout would far surpass the 46,396 recorded in 2016, which amounted to 49% of the 93,978 registered voters.

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New Covid-19 cases drop by nearly 100

By The SUN

 

Health officials say the number of Omicron infections is dropping slowly

Health officials reported 429 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, along with 13 related deaths. The daily infection tally is 94 less than Saturday’s figure.

Among these, 221 were confirmed by PCR tests while the remaining 208 were reported by people who took self-tests.

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A total of 19 imported cases were reported, including five passengers who came aboard flight QR818 from Doha, Qatar on Apr 23 and tested positive on arrival. The flight will be suspended for a week as a result.

Dr Albert Au of the Centre for Health Protection said the number of new cases is falling slowly although there is no indication of a rebound from the recent Easter holiday.

But he said authorities will have to observe the situation closely before deciding whether social distancing measures can be relaxed further.

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"Based on various parameters, the government will make risk assessments on the latest epidemic situation and adjust social distancing measures appropriately," he said.

Hung says anti-pandemic rules should be relaxed while post people have natural immunity

But earlier, a government health adviser said the authorities could consider speeding up the next relaxation of social distancing measures since more than half of Hong Kong’s population has already acquired natural immunity after contracting Covid-19.

Prof Ivan Hung from the University of Hong Kong cited a study made his university colleagues that showed about four million residents were infected in the Omicron outbreak, which gives them natural immunity from the coronavirus for up to a year.

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“So this will maintain for half a year, maybe a year. Therefore in these six months we have the condition to speed up the social distancing relaxation," Hung told reporters after appearing in a TV show.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said the next phase of relaxation of anti-pandemic rules will come only in late May.

The current regulations which allow only up to four people to gather in public, restaurants to open to dine-in services until 10pm, and most venues to reopen with 50% capacity, took effect only on Apr. 21.

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Hung said that if the total caseload dips to below 100, the government can ease the restrictions further as the chance of a rebound in cases would be very slim.

But he said the requirement for getting a booster shot by the end of May should be kept.

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He also said border restrictions including hotel quarantine and  flight suspensions should be kept until 90% of all the elderly and qualified children have had their first booster dose.

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Filipina DH fails to convince High Court to order review of her human trafficking claim

The High Court, where the case was resolved via a mixed personal and zoom hearing

A Filipina former domestic helper has failed to convince the High Court to review her lower court conviction for an immigration violation on the ground that she was a victim of human trafficking.

Court of First Instance Judge Russel Coleman dismissed the application of “AM” for leave to apply for judicial review because “I do not think the merits of AM’s proposed challenge are so strong as to point to the grant of the necessary significant period of extension of time.”

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Judge Coleman explained, in a ruling released on Friday: “That I do so should not be taken as a lack of sympathy for the plainly difficult situation in which AM found herself to be caught up.  … there is at least a decent argument that – whatever the basis of her own involvement in events – it was perhaps regrettable that no other persons faced prosecution for their involvement in the same events.  But I do not think that possible regret gives rise to any public law criticism.”

AM, 61, was convicted in June 2016 of “making false representation to an immigration officer” and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. 

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She was penalized for lying to an immigration officer on Jan. 14, 2013, as she was re-entering from China, that a certain Eddie Chiang Kwun Nam was her employer.

In her appeal to the CFI,  she claimed that the crime was a result of her being a victim of trafficking.

AM said she was recruited by a Martin Ng Kwok Fai (“Martin”) to work for Eddie, supposedly on her eighth contract since arriving in Hong Kong in 2000.

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But instead of working for Eddie, Martin made her run a boarding house (at the Mainland side of Lok Ma Chau) for Indonesian girls waiting to get employed.

She based her appeal on the alleged failure of the Director of Immigration, Commissioner of Police and the Secretary of Justice to conduct any or any effective investigation into her claim of being a victim of forced and/or compulsory labour, since February 2014, if not before, Judge Coleman said.

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But based on court rules her appeal should have been filed three months after the conviction.

The judge said AM failed to offer any explanation "for the substantial delay between at least mid-2016 and mid-2019."

He added, "Further, even though there is some explanation for the delay from mid-2019, relating to the pursuit of Legal Aid and some interruption from the pandemic restrictions, against the previous chronology I do not think waiting for legal aid is a good enough reason to justify extending the time considerably further."

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In the meantime, the case file was destroyed in 2018 in accordance with standing procedures, and so even if “some aspects of the file could be recreated from other sources, the materials are incomplete, and it is obvious that reliance on recollection after such a long period is problematic,” he added.

He also noted that, contrary to AM’s claim, her allegations against those who supposedly trafficked her were investigated by police, but were eventually dropped for insufficient evidence.

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Travel industry urges scrapping of hotel quarantine as Covid cases drop to 523

 By The SUN

 

CHP's Dr Albert Au and Hospital Authority's Dr Sara Ho at the press briefing

Health authorities reported 523 new Covid-19 cases Saturday, down by about 50 from the day before.

Among the new cases, 252 were confirmed via PCR tests, and 271 were reported by residents who tested themselves using rapid test kits.

They took the city’s total infection figure in the fifth wave of the pandemic to 1,188,800, with 9,023 related deaths.

For the first time since the Omicron surge, the death toll dropped to single digit, with nine new fatalities recorded. The patients were aged between 66 and 102 years old.

Thirteen of the new cases were imported from countries such as Vietnam, South Korea and Singapore.

Dr Albert Au of the Centre for Health Protection said he believed that the number of people returning to Hong Kong would be capped due to the limited number of rooms in designated quarantine hotels.

From May 1, even non-residents will be allowed to enter Hong Kong and will have to fight with returning residents for the available hotel rooms.

Au stressed the CHP’s top priority is to ensure all returnees test negative before arrival, following the relaxation of border control measures.   

Meanwhile the Travel Industry Council has welcomed the government’s easing of travel restrictions, which also include raising the threshold for invoking the flight suspension mechanism.

But TIC leaders said people will still stay away from Hong Kong as long as the seven-day hotel quarantine for new arrivals remains in place.

Speaking on a radio show, the council’s chairwoman Gianna Hsu said , “We don't think we can start our business to overseas or any tourist is coming to Hong Kong... We hope that the government will have the timetable and lift the quarantine policy as soon as possible."

The council suggested officials could consider letting people quarantine at home again and to scrap the flight suspension policy when the infection situation eases further.