By Daisy CL Mandap
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| The 2 Filipinas were turned away from their Oct 1 flight aboard Cebu Pacific (file photo) |
To those about to fly out of Hong Kong back to the Philippines,
beware! You must register with OneHealthPass well before checking in for your
flight, or you could miss getting on that plane.
This was what happened to two Filipinas on Saturday, Oct. 1,
while they were checking in for their 9pm flight on Cebu Pacific.
According to Rhia Mateo, who had worked in Hong
Kong for only a month before she was terminated, it was only while
she was at the airline counter that she learned she needed to register with OHP to
get a personal QR code to be allowed to board her flight.
Mateo, 36, said it was already around 7pm then, and she was
shaking from fright because she had just received a phone call from a co-worker
who said that their employer was thinking of filing a police report against
her.
Pushing the dark thought aside, she said she managed to
complete the OHP registration at about 8:12pm but the airline staff told her
they couldn’t accommodate her anymore as the check-in counter had closed.
Aside from Mateo, another Filipina, Rebecca Calma, who was
also terminated after working here for a year, had the same fate. Both failed
to make it to the boarding cut-off time so they were forced to spend the night
at the airport.
Meantime, Mateo’s husband was left waiting at Ninoy Aquino
International Airport.
She said she was too embarrassed to tell him that she had missed her flight so said
that it had been rescheduled the next day, thinking she could somehow get on
the next available flight.
But being a former seafarer, her husband was flight-savvy
enough to see through her excuse. Luckily, he did not have to travel far to get
back home that night, as they live in Quezon
City.
For Mateo, being bumped off her flight was the latest in a
series of mishaps that happened when she decided to try her luck in Hong Kong
after working in Qatar
for two years, also as a domestic helper.
She said she had waited for a year and a half to get here,
because her first employer had backed out when Hong Kong
started tightening its inbound rules for foreign domestic workers. This
included the flight ban, and then the long and tedious process of obtaining a
slot in the designated quarantine places for FDWs.
Her persistence paid off when she was placed with a new
employer and she managed to finally arrive here on Aug. 31 this year.
She said she then went straight to work for her at her
employer’s house in Fo Tan, where her main tasks were looking after a couple
and their four dogs. There was also her employer’s elderly mother she was
supposed to help look after, along with another Filipina helper.
Mateo said the work was not easy and the hours were long,
but she was determined to learn and adjust to her new surroundings. She even
agreed not to take a day off, hoping this would show her desire to learn the
ropes quickly.
Despite this, her employer gave up on her after just one
month, saying she had a poor grasp of what was expected of her. She was terminated
on the spot on Sept. 30, and paid her salary for the month, plus another
month’s pay in lieu of notice.
She was booked for her return flight to Manila the next day, and Mateo did not
resist, thinking that she could just re-apply to come back once she got home.
Early on Oct 1, she asked for permission to go out, saying
she needed to meet with a relative. But at a friend’s suggestion she took the
chance to go to the Mission
for Migrant Workers to seek advice, but it was closed as it was a holiday.
She then went to an employment agency and filled out an
application form, hoping an employer might just pick her out and get her to
come back quickly.
Once back at her employer’s house, however, she was told to
work some more, as she was supposedly paid until that day. She finished her
chores at 5pm and immediately packed her stuff and took a taxi to the airport,
anxious not to miss her flight.
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This advisory for Manila-bound passengers has been on the Consulate Facebook page since late May
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Mateo said that since she never took a day off during the
entire month that she was here, she did not get the chance to talk at length to
fellow Filipinos, nor consult with support organizations about her work-related
concerns.
The employment agency that brought her here also did not
guide her, so she was not aware that there were things she needed to do before
she could get on her flight back to the Philippines.
But once she got stuck at the airport, she began searching
online, and found the hotline for the Philippine Overseas Labor Office. When
she called, she was told that she and Calma should have reached out earlier so
they could have avoided being bumped off.
The next morning, the two got lucky when they met members of
Social Justice for Migrant Workers who were sending off another friend who was
bound for Canada.
The group paid for their breakfast at McDonald’s and gave them money so they
could go to Polo and get help.
With help from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration,
Mateo’s Hong Kong agency was contacted, and
told that since they failed to guide her well they should pay for her new plane
ticket.
Mateo is now staying at the Polo shelter for the night, and
is scheduled to fly out tomorrow, on the same Cebu Pacific flight that she
missed earlier. But this time, she is making sure she completes the OHP
declaration well ahead of time so she does not go through Saturday’s nightmare
all over again.
Note: All travelers to
the Philippines
must register with OneHealthPass and obtain a personal QR code which they must
present at the check-in counter, along with their vaccination record. Those who
had three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine need not present any negative PCR test
result obtained within 48 hours of departure. But this will be required of
those who did not complete three doses, or are unvaccinated.
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