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| About 500 Filipinos lined up outside Emry's office for 4 months in 2016 for the fake jobs |
One of a handful
of people who worked tirelessly to help hundreds of Filipino domestic workers get
their cases against the now-defunct Emry’s Employment Agency heard, has
expressed disappointment that the actual victims in the case never got relief.
Edwina Antonio,
case officer of the Mission for Migrant Workers, was commenting after Emry’s
co-owner Ester Ylagan, was jailed for 32 months on Feb. 2 after she pleaded
guilty to four counts of laundering a total of $5.7 million which she made
offering non-existent jobs to some 500 Filipinos.
Antonio, together with fellow case officer Ester Bangcawayan, represented more than 100
claimants against Ylagan in cases that started in July 2016 and dragged on for more than two years at the
Small Claims Tribunal and the District Court.
A separate criminal case for money laundering, instead of illegal recruitment or fraud, was eventually filed against Ylagan when she returned to Hong Kong in 2018, after fleeing to the Philippines.
“Sa tagal
nang inabot ng kaso, at daan-daang biktima, hindi sapat ang ilang buwang kulong
na hatol sa kanya. Tapos ang kaso na isinampa laban sa kanya ay hindi illegal recruitment kundi money laundering. Nasaan ang hustisya para sa kanyang mga biktima?”,
said Antonio.
(The jail term
is not enough for the many years that it took for the case to be resolved, and
the hundreds of victims. To make it worse, the case filed against her was not
for illegal recruitment. Where’s the justice for her victims?)
“Ang nais lang
naman ng mga biktima kaya sila nag-aplay ng trabaho sa Canada at UK ay para
magkaroon sila ng opportunities na maisama ang kanilang mga pamilya na hindi pwede
dito sa Hong Kong. Tapos isang kilala at dating maasahan na agency pa ang gumawa
sa kanila nito. Kung meron lang sanang trabaho sa atin hindi ito mangyayari.”
(The victims applied for jobs in Canada and the UK so they could have an opportunity to bring their families along, something which is not possible in Hong Kong. They didn’t realize that a well-known and reputable agency would do this to them. If there were enough jobs back home this would not have happened).
This was the
same reaction by a handful of FDWs who faithfully followed up their complaints
over the years, and even agreed to testify for the prosecution had Ylagan
insisted on her innocence.
Following the
sentencing, the first question asked by Aurora Hayag was “Paano na kami?” (What
happens to us now?).
Hayag went to court
on the last two days of the hearing, armed with the documents she had collected
over the years, after filing and pursuing a complaint against Ylagan with the
police and the Philippine Consulate.
She paid $10,000 to Ylagan personally, hoping to secure a job for her son back in
the Philippines, and was shocked to
learn that the highly regarded recruiter had scammed them.
But another
victim who attended the sentencing said she had given up hope that she could recover
the $10,000 that she paid Ylagan, but was there only to witness the recruiter being
sent to jail.
“Diyos na ang humatol sa kanya,” (It was
God that finally decided her fate), said Marites Bumayat, whose employers gave her full
support and allowed her to attend the court hearings after learning about the
deception.
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| 3 victims were joined by Bangcawayan and another supporter after the sentencing |
Ylagan, 71, had
been out on $40,000 bail until she pleaded guilty to the four money laundering charges against her.
She was charged with sending more than $5.7 million she collected from her
victims to various people in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Turkey and Malaysia on the
instruction of “William,” a person who interacted with her only through email.
William
introduced himself as an employment agency owner based in the United Kingdom, and told Ylagan
to recruit as many job applicants as she could find, and to send the money they
paid her to various people in different countries.
Ylagan's own staff
told investigators they warned her about dealing with this person, especially after
several remittance companies stopped accepting their money, but she persisted.
She herself admitted that in June 2016 she was advised by then Labor Attache
Jalilo dela Torre that she was being scammed but she did not listen, resulting
to Emry’s losing its recruitment license and being shuttered.
In the first
charge, Ylagan was accused of remitting a total of HK$2,633,181.52 and
US$44,658 (HK$347,439) to Malaysia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso between Jan 29 and
May 5, 2016. The total sum of HK$2,980,620 was dealt with in cash.
In the second
count, she was accused of moving a total sum of US$300,000 (HK$2,334,000) from
an account with Standard Chartered Bank to a recipient in Turkey from May 12 to
23, 2016.
The third charge
said Ylagan, using her account at HSBC, again sent to Turkey a total of
US$10,055 (HK$78,227) between May 25 and 26, 2016.
In the fourth
charge, she remitted again to Turkey a total of US$50,000 (HK$389,000) from her
HSBC account on Jul 8, 2016.
Judge Katherine
Lo said Ylagan collected more than $6 million from about 500 applicants. Only part of what she made was sent to
unknown persons abroad, and the rest, which amounted to about $570,000, was not
accounted for.
“So the
defendant received more than she remitted,” said the judge.
She used four
years as starting point for the sentence, and gave Ylagan a total discount of 1/3 for
her belated guilty plea, her remorse and for refunding money to some of
the victims.
