Robredo, Lacson, Pacquiao bare senatorial tickets

By The SUN 

Robredo now has 5 permanent, 6 guest candidates as senators

Presidential candidates Leni Robredo, Panfilo Lacson and Manny Pacquiao today announced their respective senatorial slates, in a race where their parties share common candidates.

Vice President Robredo announced six guest candidates who will join her five earlier picks. She added that the last candidate will be chosen from among four or five frontrunners, and should represent a marginalized sector.

Her guest candidates are former Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri, Joel Villanueva and Richard Gordon, and former Sen. and present Sorsogon Governor Francis Escudero and Alex Lacson of Kapatiran.

Noticeably absent was former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, who was a convenor of 1Sambayan which endorsed Robredo's candidacy. His omission from the list led to  #WeWantNeri to emerge as a top trending topic on Twitter.

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Earlier, Robredo announced the official candidates of the Liberal Party: Senators Risa Hontiveros and Leila de Lima, former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno and Former Representative Teddy Baguilat.

In a press conference with her vice presidential candidate Sen Kiko Pangilinan and retiring Sen. Franklin Drilon, who served as her adviser, Robredo said: "Mga kinatawan sila ng mas malawakang puwersang handang tumindig para isulong ang bago, matino, at makataong pamamahala, mula sa tuktok ng pamahalaan hanggang sa bawat sulok ng burukrasya.”

(They represent a broader force that is willing to stand with us in pursuing a new, trustworthy and people-centered administration, from the top echelons of government and throughout the entire bureaucracy)

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What emerged was that her slate shares candidates with the tickets announced by fellow presidentiables Panfilo Lacson and Manny Pacquiao.

5 of Robredo's senatorial candidates are also in Lacson's ticket

Lacson and running mate Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the 15-candidate slate they will endorse during the campaign will also have Escudero, Villanueva, Zubiri, Binay and Gordon.

Lacson’s other choices were: Antique Rep. Loren Legarda, former Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, , former Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, former Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, Dr. Minguita Padilla, Former Makati Rep. Monsour del Rosario, Powee Capino and Information and Communications Secretary Greg Honasan.

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“Ang initial plan namin is to adopt all 14 and we are only adopting them and we will campaign because we feel that they are the ones qualified to go to be elected as senators of the republic,” said Lacson, who is running under the coalition of Partido Reporma and the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

In addition to the 14 senatoriables, Sotto said they will also endorse a “surprise candidate.”

Pacquiao's line-up includes the same guest candidates as Lacson

Pacquiao’s bets also included Escudero, Villanueva, Zubiri, Binay and Gordon.

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His other candidates  are: Raffy Tulfo, Loren Legarda, Lutgardo Barbo , Elmer Labog and Neri Colmenares.

Pacquiao said: “Yung ibang mga kandidato gusto maging guest candidate eh open tayo,” he said. 

He is running with former Manila mayor and current Buhay party-list Representative Lito Atienza. 

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The first senatorial ticket to be announced was that of the PDP-Laban faction. led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and whose registered candidate is Sen. Bato dela Rosa.

Its initial Senate slate announced last Sept. 8, included Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Leyte 4th District Representative Lucy Torres-Gomez, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar, Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission Commissioner Greco Belgica and House Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta.

Former Sen. Bongbong Marcos is expected to announce his senatorial choices shortly.

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Police break up crowd of thousands on last day of OVR

By Daisy CL Mandap

 

People on the bridge and on the ground listen as they are asked to disperse 

Thousands of Filipinos won’t be able to cast their ballots in next year’s presidential election after Hong Kong police broke up the long queue that formed outside the Consulate building on Thursday, the last day of the overseas voter registration.

Those who were in the queue said the police started telling people to disperse at about noon after noticing the large crowd that gathered on the bridge linking Tamar and United Centre where the Consulate is located.

As a result, Consulate officers and staff were forced to issue only 500 numbered tickets to those at the start of the queue, leaving many more people with no choice but to leave.

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Consul Bob Quintin, who heads the OVR team at the Consulate, said, “Sobrang dami ng tao (there were just too many people). The police came and dispersed the crowd.”

He added, “We had to follow police orders. In the end, they helped us deal with the crowd.”

Unfortunately for the would-be applicants in Hong Kong, Storm Signal No 8 was hoisted the day before the deadline so those who had planned to register on that day spilled over on to the last day of the OVR.

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Then, since Thursday was a statutory holiday, there were not a lot of people out on the streets, so the thick gathering outside the Consulate was easily noticed by the police out to enforce anti-Covid restrictions that limit public gatherings to only four people to a group.

“May mga pumila ng 10pm kagabi, so definitely…kinaumagahan, mahaba na rin ang pila,” said Quintin. (Some queued up starting at 10pm the previous night, so definitely, the line was already long early the next day).

“There was just no way we could absorb that volume so we had to cut it at some point. (It) just happened earlier than we would have wanted.”

The Consulate's public hall was jampacked, too  (Facebook photo)

The Consulate had earlier announced that it would open for OVR only on Thursday, from 9am to 3pm. In the past few Sundays of the registration, the cut-off was set at 4pm, but Consulate staff were able to finish processing all applications only at around 1am the next day.

With the police imposing crowd control measures Thursday, the last of the OVR applicant was able to leave the Consulate offices on the 14^th floor of United Centre at around 5:30pm.

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Consul Bob said that apart from the lucky 500 people who got tickets to go up to the Consulate, there was another group that was already inside before the police took action.

“Maraming transfer so they don’t add to the registration count, but we had around that number, 500-600, but the total transactions are beyond that. Meron pang mga active ang registration upon verification.”

One of those who failed to beat the deadline was Christina Medes Garma, who said she had gone to the Consulate at 8am.

“Yun ngang 3am dumating, hindi nakaabot e ako pa kayang 8am nang nandun?,” she said, obviously miffed. (Those who came at 3am weren’t able to make the cut, so how much chance did I have when I arrived at 8am?)

According to some of those who managed to get in despite coming a bit later in the morning, people had to know where to position themselves so they stood a better chance of getting to the front of the queue.

Some spent the night at the Consulate to be first in line (Facebook)

Garma said she was already in the queue when the police came.

“Bumaba na yung pinaka-head ng Consulate, nag megaphone na, kasama ang mga pulis. Hindi na daw ma-accommodate lahat kaya dapat mag disperse na kasi hindi na ma control ang crowd,” she said.

(The head of the Consulate came down and used a megaphone, accompanied by the police. He said not everyone could be accommodated so we should start dispersing because the crowd could not be controlled anymore).

After the police repeated the warning, she said the people who were lined up had no choice but to disperse.

Others on the same boat asked through social media posts why the Consulate capped the number of people they allowed inside at only 500, when thousands more were already camped outside. Others simply begged for another extension so they could still get the chance to vote next year.

The OVR was originally scheduled to end on Sept. 30, but was extended for a further two weeks in the wake of clamor from Filipinos abroad. Those in the Philippines have until Oct 30 to register.

After months of delays caused by raucous anti-government protests in Hong Kong, the Consulate resumed the OVR in December 2019, but only a few people availed of the service then despite the registration desk being positioned right in front of the office lifts.

The registration slowed down after the pandemic hit two months later, with the Consulate being forced to operate at reduced work hours, and people being advised to stay indoors to stop the spread of the virus.

The registration picked up about two months before the deadline, but the queuing at the start happened only on Sundays, and later, on Saturdays as well, after Consul General Raly Tejada acceded to requests from some migrant workers.

In the last month of the registration, people started lining up even on weekdays. One recently arrived Filipina resident said she had to take a day-off to register, but still spent three hours going through the process.

The final step in the long road to OVR (Facebook)

But the last-minute rush especially among the migrant workers was just one of the things that hampered the work of the OVR team. Equally challenging was the inadequate logistical support extended them by the Commission on Elections.

With tens of thousands of Filipinos anxious to make their vote count in a highly politicized place like Hong Kong the Consulate’s OVR team had to make do with only two computers to capture biometrics and ensure they’re stored in the Comelec data base.

This is a far cry from when the Consulate had enough computers to regularly conduct mobile or outreach registration, and list up the first 87,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong who eagerly signed up for the chance to directly elect their national leaders.

More ominously now, no budget appears to have been set aside for doing preparatory work to ensure the ageing Bayanihan Centre where the overseas voting has been held since 2004 is still able to withstand the rigors of yet another presidential election.

With just six months to go before the month-long voting starts, this may yet pose an even bigger challenge to the Consulate than the OVR crunch.

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Another Indonesian helper tests positive after quarantine

By Daisy CL Mandap

 

The helper had moved in with her employer in Providence Bay, Tai Po when found infected

Another Indonesian domestic helper has tested positive for coronavirus after ending her 21-day quarantine at Silka Tsuen Wan hotel, the second such case in just eight days. 

According to a statement released by the Centre for Health Protection today, Oct 14, the 30-year-old helper arrived from Indonesia on Sept 17 via flight CX798. She tested negative on arrival at Hong Kong International Airport, and on all six tests administered during her quarantine.

After completing her quarantine on Oct 7, she moved to her employer’s residence at Tower 10, Phase 3 - The Graces, Providence Bay, Tai Po. The next day she developed symptoms, but got tested only on Oct 12. The result was positive but with a low viral load.

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After being taken to hospital, the test result was indeterminate. She received two doses of the Sinovac vaccine on Jul 9 and Aug 11 in Indonesia.

Nevertheless, she was included in the list of positive cases, raising Hong Kong’s total Covid tally to 12,276 confirmed cases.

The CHP also issued a compulsory testing notice for the building where she resided and places that she visited. Everyone who had been to these places should get themselves tested by Oct. 16.

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The case comes just eight days after another Indonesian domestic worker tested positive nine days after ending her 21-day quarantine, also at Silka Tsuen Wan Hotel.

The 43-year-old helper tested positive during routine testing, but negative after being taken to hospital, where she also tested positive for antibodies. She was asymptomatic.

In this case, the employer’s residential building in Heng Fa Chuen, Chai Wan was put under a CTN, as well as Victoria Park, which the helper twice visited after ending her quarantine.

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As in the first case, the helper had two jabs of the Sinovac vaccine in Indonesia.

In the past several months, several helpers had the same experience. On May 22, an Indonesian helper was found infected four days after ending her quarantine. The next day, a Filipina helper also tested positive five days after quarantine, while earlier, on May 4, another Filipina was found to have the N501Y mutant strain 15 days after leaving her quarantine hotel.

In all these cases, the CTNs issued in the buildings where they had resided yielded no new cases. Some were found to have been infected in their quarantine hotels.

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Court adjourns case vs Filipino driver in fatal traffic accident

By Vir B. Lumicao 

The court ordered the driver returned to custody until his next appearance in December

Filipino driver R.M. Ducusin turned 40 on Friday, Oct 8, as he returned to Eastern Court to face a charge of “dangerous driving causing death” for running over an elderly local man in Wanchai in July.

Magistrate Andrew Mok adjourned the case until Dec 31 pending an alcohol test and medical reports on Ducusin, and for further investigation.

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The defendant, who has a domestic helper visa, was returned to custody after the prosecution again opposed granting him bail.

Ducusin was arrested on Jul 28 after hitting Lee Kwok-leung, 69, on the westbound lane of Queen’s Road East near the junction of Amoy St. as he was driving his employer’s car.

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The victim was rushed to Ruttonjee Hospital with multiple injuries and was certified dead at 9:47 am that day.

Ducusin's mother who works as a domestic helper for the same employer, has said she and her son were returning to Mid-Levels after buying food at the Wanchai Market when the incident happened.

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She remembered hearing a thud and then her son saying, “Nay, may nasagasaan ako.”  (Ma, I ran over somebody.) She said the defendant looked dazed afterwards.

The elderly woman revealed Ducusin was celebrating his birthday that day.

She said she asked her employer to hire his son years ago, as he had a family with two young children.

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Filipina on trial for illegal recruitment says she thought agency was licensed

By Vir B. Lumicao

 

Biscocho is on trial in the District Court case being heard at West Kowloon court

A Filipina domestic helper who worked for an employment agency owner accused of accepting payments for bogus jobs and for laundering more than $700,000 paid by applicants has said in court that she had no doubt the agency was licensed as her boss had told her so.

Giving evidence on the 17^th day of her trial along with the agency owner on Monday in District Court, defendant Marijane Biscocho, 44, said she believed the agency, WHT Consultants Co in Kwun Tong, was licensed.

Biscocho faces 20 charges, including violating her visa condition by doing illegal work, violating the Trade Description Ordinance by wrongly accepting payments for a product, and money laundering.

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Biscocho said her co-accused, Lennis Ebrahim, 55, had sent her photos of a business registration certificate after some job applicants demanded to see it.  

The Filipina said she had worked for Ebrahim, and her job included depositing money to the  boss’ bank accounts and accepting job applications.

She said that each time she sent money to the Philippines for the training of applicants she also presented that as proof that WHT was a licensed company.

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But on being questioned by her Legal Aid-provided lawyer, Phil Chau, Biscocho said the document was in Chinese and that she could not read it.

When asked about whether she knew that Ebrahim also owned another agency in To Kwa Wan, the Remy Consultants Co, Biscocho said she only learned about this when they moved to that address in 2019.

“I believe it was licensed because that was what Lennis told me,” said Biscocho when Chau pressed her about WHT’s license. She also said she did not know that Ebrahim had changed the name of WHT to Remy until the latter told her.

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Asked if Remy was also licensed, Biscocho said she was not sure but there was another business registration certificate displayed on top of a cabinet in the To Kwa Wan office.

Ebrahim had also told her they were moving out of their previous office in  Kwun Tong because the contract was not renewed.

The Filipina also said she was not aware that early on, Ebrahim was using another name, Catherine Yu, but found out about this only from a co-worker, Nympha Lumatac when she received a receipt for a Bank of China check addressed to a Mr Yu in April 2019.

Biscocho said during questioning by Chau that she came to Hong Kong in 1988 to work as a domestic helper of a Mr Chan in Shatin. At the time of her arrest on Nov 7, 2019 she was under a domestic helper contract with  Peter Chan Hin-man, with a visa issued on Sept 27, 2017 and valid until Nov 12, 2019.

But when questioned during her arrest, Biscocho claimed she was working for WHT, with offices in Kwun Tong.

Biscocho said in reply to Chau’s question that she was offered by Ebrahim a job at WHT to talk to applicants and answer their queries about jobs. But she said she worked there only on Sundays as Ebrahim had two regular employees, Lumatac and an Indonesian woman named Allin.

Scores of Filipino domestic workers had paid placement fees to WHT to get their relatives in the Philippines to come to Hong Kong or Macau for such jobs as waiter, housekeeper, printer, caregiver and welder.

After more than a year of waiting, the applicants realized there were no real jobs and decided to complain.

Seven of them are named in the charges against Biscocho and Ebrahim: Rosalina Agcalis, Jocelyn Domingo, Nena Castro, Maria Aurora Lagura, Jovelyn Villaflor, Mary Joy Liggayu and Preciosa Abellera.

But when Chau mentioned the names of some of the applicants, Biscocho said she attended to some or accepted their documents, while Lumatac, who has disappeared after the complaints started piling up, was the one who processed their applications.

Biscocho and Ebrahim are alleged to have laundered money from the illicit recruitment 

Biscocho faces two counts of money laundering for handling a total of $299,745 in a Hang Seng Bank account between Jun 17, 2018 and Sept 30, 2019. She is also accused of depositing $110,500 in an HSBC account between Sept 23, 2018 and Jun 16, 2019.

Ebrahim faces one count of money laundering for allegedly dealing with a total of $331,216 between Sept 23, 2018 and Jun 16, 2019 in an HSBC account she held jointly with Biscocho. 

The trial continues.

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Consulate to open tomorrow for last day of OVR

By Daisy CL Mandap                                   

The Consulate advisory says it will open tomorrow, 9am to 3pm, for OVR only

Despite tomorrow being a statutory holiday due to the Chung Yeung festival, the Consulate will open from 9am to 3pm for overseas voter registration.

An advisory posted on the Consulate’s Facebook page says only OVR services will be provided during the day, the last day of the extended registration for Filipinos overseas for the May 2022 presidential elections.

In the Philippines, voter registration will continue until Oct 30.

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The original deadline was Sept 30 for both local and overseas registration, but the Commission on Elections was forced to yield to a widespread clamor for an extension, which received strong support from both houses of Congress.

As no registration took place today due to the hoisting of Storm Signal No 8 across Hong Kong, the long queues in the past several Sundays are likely to happen again tomorrow.

Most of those who patiently lined up on those days said it took them no less than seven hours to get through the process. Those who wanted to be first in line reportedly got to the United Centre building in Admiralty where the Consulate has its offices, as early as 5 in the morning.

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But with the cut-off time set an hour earlier tomorrow, Consulate staff will not likely stay up beyond 1am the next day, as what happened in the last three Sundays of registration.

The line was longest on Oct 10, the last Sunday before the extended deadline.

The line was the longest on Sunday, Oct 10

When asked why they decided to register at the last minute when the OVR has been going on for at least a year, many said they were not aware that it was going on. They claimed they never saw any announcement on the Consulate’s social media sites about the registration exercise.

One of them was Precy Pacuyo, who said in a comment on Facebook: “Hindi ako aware about (the) registration. Nalaman ko lang sa isang friend ko na last day na noon Sept 26 yata, tapos na extend ng Oct. 14. Di rin ako nakakalabas ng maaga para makapila.”(I wasn’t aware about the registration. I just learned from a friend that the last day was on Sept 26 – I think – then it was extended to Oct 14. I also couldn’t leave the house early to line up).

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Others cited the coronavirus pandemic as the main reason for their failure to register, as employers used it to prevent their domestic workers from taking a day-off. Before this, the raucous anti-government protests in Hong Kong also kept many people at home.

A few said they decided to register only after seeing their favored candidates file their declaration to run for key posts in next year’s election.

But those who were more forthright admitted they did not give the voter registration a priority until they realized there were only a few more days left before the OVR closed.

As in previous overseas voting exercises, voters will have the chance to elect the Philippines’ next president, vice-president and senators, as well as a party-list of their choice. Designated nominees of party-lists that win enough votes will get to sit at the House of Representatives.

All Philippine passport holders aged 18 years old and above are qualified to register. Overseas, they need to present only a copy of their passport page with their personal details to be able to register.

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