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Pinay hunts down employer who owes her unpaid wages

Posted on 16 July 2019 No comments

By Vir B. Lumicao

The Tribunal could not proceed with the case in the absence of the employer

A Filipina helper is on a manhunt for her former employer who allegedly owes her $8,000 in unpaid wages, return air ticket and one month salary in lieu of notice.

Maricel Ulay launched her search for Chu Wa-cheun after the employer failed to show up for the hearing of the helper's claim at the Labour Tribunal earlier today, Jul 16.

It was the first setback for Ulay after terminating her contract with Chu, as she had previously recovered Php45,000 from the employment agency in Manila which had placed her for the Hong Kong job.

Ulay waited in court until 11:30am when Presiding Officer G.T. Lung started hearing her claim, but her former employer was nowhere to be found.

Lung said he could not proceed with the case because the court notice that was sent to the defendant in the address supplied by Ulay was returned to the Tribunal as Chu could not be found there.

Ulay said the address was supplied by Chu in their employment contract.

Lung advised the Filipina to try to find the defendant in her new address and hand the court notice and the bundle of claim documents personally to her.

In the meantime, Lung said he was withdrawing Ulay’s claim until Chu could be located.

Ulay said after the hearing that she terminated her contract on Apr 20, after only four months with Chu, because the employer had made her work illegally in her laundry shop in Sheung Shui.

After the hearing, volunteers for the Mission for Migrant Workers who accompanied Ulay to the Tribunal tried to help her locate on Google maps Chu’s laundry in a remote village in Sheung Shui.

The maid did not know the name of the street but remembered the minibus number and the route, which she said was 10 minutes away by bus from the MTR station.

The volunteers eventually found the street but could still not pinpoint the laundry’s exact location because, as Ulay said, it was on a numberless yard fenced off with GI sheets.

Ulay, a friend and the owner of her Hong Kong agency decided to set off for Sheung Shui to locate the laundry, and serve the court documents to her missing employer.

Earlier this month, Ulay managed to recover the Php45,000 charged her by her Philippine agency, with help from outgoing Labor Attaché Jalilo dela Torre. Ulay said the agency paid back the money to her mother in the Philippines on Jul 7.

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Filipina falls to death in apparent suicide

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By The SUN

Mei Foo Sun Chuen 2008.jpg

The Mei Foo Sun Chuen housing estate where the Filipina appears to have jumped to her death (Wikipedia photo)

A 31-year-old Filipina domestic worker fell from a building in Cheung Sha Wan just after 1pm on Monday, Jul 15, in an apparent suicide. She was declared dead at the scene.

The victim whose initials were VRM, was single and a native of Tibiao, Antique, a neighbor told The SUN. She was the family’s breadwinner and was the only girl among a brood of boys.

Newspaper reports said she had killed herself over a “relationship problem” but this could not be confirmed by the neighbor.

A police spokeswoman said no suicide note was found from the victim, and her death had been classified as “falling from a height.” A post mortem will be conducted.

The spokeswoman further said the victim had fallen from a building on 46 Nassau Street in Mei Foo Sun Chuen estate, Cheung Sha Wan. A 31-year-old construction worker surnamed Lee had called police after hearing a loud sound, then saw her body lying on the pavement.

“Initial investigations found no suspicious circumstances,” said the spokeswoman.

The neighbor said the victim had worked for just one employer for the past four years. Her aunt reportedly worked with her for the same employer. – with a report from Merly T. Bunda

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Locsin in HK to launch first overseas portal for online application for PH passports

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By The SUN

Image may contain: one or more people, crowd and indoor

A panormamic shot of the crowd at the online passport application system led by Secretary Teodoro Locsin (in middle)

The Consulate in Hong Kong has become the first Philippine post overseas to have a passport online booking system for Filipinos.

Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., leading a team of officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, presided over the launch of the service at a meeting attended by about 200 Filipino community leaders and Consulate staff on Sunday, Jul 14.

“This system will slash the long passport queues by providing an easy-to-navigate, faster and more convenient way of booking passport appointments,” said Locsin, who added that this will help OFWs save precious time on their only free day in a week.

“It only takes a few minutes on your mobile phone browser or computer to complete the process. No more queuing for an appointment,” Locsin said, adding half-jokingly that “if something goes wrong, just go on twitter because I am always there.”

To make the online appointment booking, an applicant must go to https://hk.passport.gov.ph/ and sign in with either an email address or through google. If using email, you will get a confirmation message with a link which you must click within 24 hours or you will have to redo the process.

Once you get to the appointment page, you will see a list of available dates and time. Click your preferred schedule, then fill out the attached application form. Print both documents and go to the Consulate on your chosen date and time to complete the process.

Image may contain: text

PCG's diagram shows '4 easy steps' to apply for passport online

The online application system took effect on Jul 14, and was first tested for two OFW applicants, including Global Alliance chairman Leo Selomenio, who said she had a problem using her iPhone to log in, but managed to do so with an android phone.

Vice Consul Fatima Quintin, who heads the passport office, said the appointment system for all passport applicants will be enforced starting Aug 1 this year.

While online appointments are preferred, she said applicants can still book appointments in-person at the Consulate, though this could take time, especially when done on Sundays, when most overseas Filipino workers are off.

A cursory check of the online application site showed many available slots from today until October. However, the default month is October, so one has to use the back arrow to get an earlier date.

Image may contain: 4 people, people standing

Secretary Locsin says Filipinos abroad are his priority

Previously, booking appointments for passport application, especially for Sundays, was done either by phone, email, or in person. On weekdays, anybody could just walk in and fill in the application form, then have their photos taken on the same day.

Locsin said that since assuming his post as secretary earlier this year, he had made it a priority to get rid of “unnecessarily burdensome requirements” in the DFA’s consular and assistance to nationals services.

This included getting rid of requiring birth certificates for passport renewal, fully utilizing the assistance to nationals fund for Filipinos overseas, and affixing “apostille” instead of the costly authentication for official documents issued abroad.

“In everything we do, we put the Filipinos abroad first. Why? Because you matter. The hard work you put in, day in, day out, for your families, and therefore, for our country, will not come to nothing,” he said.

The foreign secretary said the online appointment system had been “so efficient and so convenient” in the Philippines that the passport demand last year had overshot the DFA’s estimate of the number of passport applicants by more than 700,000.

Locsin said the OFWs’ only day off in the week is precious, so they should spend shorter time transacting with the Consulate for services.

“It is clear to me that after six days of hard work, your one day of free time is a right but also a precious gift spent resting and reconnecting with families and loved ones back home. So when I took over, I knew I had to protect that one single day,” Locsin said.

Thinking that, he said he spent months meeting with Undersecretary Brigido Dulay, the Office of Consular Affairs, as well as Consul General Antonio Morales and his team, so they could launch the first OAS in Hong Kong.

In introducing Locsin, ConGen Morales lauded him for being the principal author of the Overseas Absentee Voting bill passed in 2003, when he was still a member of the House of Representatives.

That bill paved the way for Hong Kong to consistently emerge as the Philippines’ foreign service post with the highest voter turnout in every election anywhere in the world.

Losin was also cited as one of the authors of the Dual Citizenship law, which allowed Filipinos to hold a second passport, apart from the one issued by the Philippine government.

With the launch of the online appointment system, Morales said Hong Kong has again beaten other posts for the honor of being the first to provide the service.

“Once again, nauna na naman po ang Hong Kong, at nagpapasalamat tayo sa ating kalihim.”

Aside from Dulay, other DFA officials accompanying Locsin at the launch were Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Neil Frank R. Ferrer and Office of Consular Affairs executive director Maria Theresa S.M. Lazaro.

Locsin said the DFA hopes to expand the online appointment system to other countries in Asia and in other regions such as the Middle East, Europe and the Americas to make passport renewal more convenient for Filipinos overseas.
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Labatt decries dropping of labor cases vs Ylagan

Posted on 15 July 2019 No comments

By Vir B. Lumicao

Ylagan in photo taken after
her return to HK in Dec 2018

Former recruitment agent Ester P. Ylagan, who is accused of collecting millions of dollars from about 500 Filipino job applicants, has gotten away from 23 charges of collecting excessive commission when labour prosecutors withdrew the charges against her.

Magistrate Peter Yu Chun-cheung approved the dropping of the charges at the request of prosecutors when the case was heard at Eastern Court for the fifth time on Jul 12.

The prosecutors said that they had decided to withdraw the charges “to avoid jeopardizing possible action to be taken by the police”.

A statement sent by the Labour Department to The SUN said Ylagan had been arrested by the police for suspected involvement in more serious offences arising from the alleged job scam, and had subsequently gone bankrupt.

The cases stemmed from complaints filed in mid-2016 by about 200 Filipino job applicants from Hong Kong, Macau and the Philippines, who claimed to have paid Ylagan between $10,000 and $15,000 each for non-existent jobs in Britain and Canada.

Outgoing Labor Attaché Jalilo dela Torre deplored labour’s action, saying the withdrawal of the cases filed by the Employment Agency Administration sends a chilling message that the interests of foreign helpers here are not Hong Kong’s concern.

Outgoing Labatt says the dropping of charges sends 'chilling' message

“It is sad that in a case which victimized hundreds of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong, the EAA has decided this way. There is ample evidence showing the owner of this agency committed a criminal offence by charging placement fees in amounts way above what is allowed by Hong Kong law,” Labatt Dela Torre said.

“The EAA’s decision sends a chilling message to the community of 340,000 foreign domestic helpers—that your interests and the need to protect them are not our (Hong Kong’s) priority,” he said.

“This flies in the face of the oft-repeated exhortation that foreign domestic workers are important to Hong Kong. In this case, the EAA seems to be telling the community they are not important,” Dela Torre said.

Consul Paulo Saret, head of the Consulate’s assistance to nationals section, said they will now press Hong Kong justice officials to speed up the filing of fraud and money laundering cases against Ylagan.

Ylagan, along with her solely owned company, Mike’s Secretarial Services, was originally charged by the EAA with 23 counts of “receiving payment other than the prescribed commission” under the Employment Ordinance.

Ylagan also co-owned Emry’s Service Staff Employment Agency, which at the time of the filing of cases against her, was the biggest recruiter of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong.

More than 200 of her alleged victims had sued her in the Small Claims Tribunal in August 2016 to get back their money. About a dozen had won their claims, until the Tribunal decided to consolidate the remaining cases, and passed them on to the District Court for adjudication. They have remained there since. (https://www.sunwebhk.com/search?q=ester+ylagan)

Ylagan pre-empted the filing of complaints against her by going to the police in May 2016 to say that she herself had been a victim of a Britain-based job recruiter. She claimed she had lost $4.2 million to this recruiter, which included money paid her by her applicants, in effect admitting she had violated the law against overcharging.

But it was only in June this year that police arrested Ylagan on suspected fraud and money laundering, along with her former friend and adviser, suspended barrister Ody Lai.

Police say the cases against the two have already been elevated to the Department of Justice for evaluation and possible prosecution in court.

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