By Jan Yumul
A Filipina who was allegedly made to work as a domestic helper while holding a tourist visa, and prevented from leaving her employer's house for more than two years, pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching immigration laws at Shatin Court on Jul. 20.
J.S.D., 31, had earlier denied the charges, but changed her plea when she appeared again before Deputy Magistrate Lawrence Hui Cheuk-lun.
She pleaded guilty to one count of overstaying her visa and another for working illegally in Hong Kong. Her sentencing has been set for Aug. 11. Magistrate Hui extended her bail after the defense counsel asked for an adjournment pending the sentencing to allow for further investigations into the case.
J.S.D.'s counsel said the Filipina was "ill-treated" by the employer and that she was willing to give information to the immigration authorities on whether it was her employer who had breached the law.
The court was also told that she would assist the prosecution in going after her employer.
"Defendant, your counsel told me you would assist the prosecution. Certainly, that may be a large mitigating factor for you," said Hui.
But he also warned the Filipina that she should keep in close contact with her duty lawyers and take proactive steps to liaise with them.
Outside court, the defendant told The Sun that she decided to change her plea because she did not want her case to drag on further. She said she was also told that her guilty plea would allow her to act as a prosecution witness against the couple who forced her to work and kept her a virtual prisoner for more than two years.
J.S.D. pleaded not guilty when she appeared in the same court in June.
She was first charged in Sept 22 last year, after voluntarily surrendering to immigration authorities. She was found to have remained in Hong Kong for more than 14 days since she arrived here as a visitor on Mar 13, 2008.
According to the charge sheet, she also worked as a domestic helper in a flat in Tseung Kwan O between Jun 2, 2008 until she surrendered to immigration.
In an interview with The Sun shortly after conviction, J.S.D. said that her former employer in the Philippines, a certain Ruby Malazarte, came with her to Hong Kong in March, 2008.
Malazarte, a businesswoman living in Tubay, Agusan del Norte, is reportedly married to a Chinese HK resident.
| J.S.D, said that she had been working for the couple for only three months when Lee's sibling, who was living in Hong Kong, reportedly sought his help in getting someone to look after their bedridden mother who is reportedly suffering from dementia.
According to J.S.D., the couple recommended her for the job and was told that she would have to go to Hong Kong initially as a tourist.
The Filipina said she agreed because she was not aware that this was illegal, as it was her first time to leave the Philippines. Besides, she trusted Malazarte, who was then still her employer.
When she got to Hong Kong, she was allegedly told that her new employers, who were Malazarte's sister-in-law and her husband, would "handle and help process her papers for work".
"Akala ko ok lang na ganun (I thought that would be ok)," she said.
J.S.D. recalled that when she entered Hong Kong with Malazarte, the employer was asked who she was. Malazarte reportedly replied that Delegiro was a friend.
"Hindi ako umimik kasi amo ko siya. Siyempre kung anong utos nya, susundin ko. Pero after two days, iniwanan nya na ako sa Tseung Kwan O (I did not say anything because she's my employer. Of course, I would do whatever she asked me to. But after two days, she left me in Tseung Kwan O)," said the Filipina.
When J.S.D. began working for the Hong Kong couple, she was reportedly told not to tell anyone about her status in the city.
The Filipina claims that she was never allowed to leave the flat, and was told to guard her elderly ward all the time.
When asked who provided her with her daily necessities, she said it was her female employer, who is reportedly a teacher.
"Wala akong kakilala kasi hindi naman ako pinapayagan lumabas. Hindi ko nga alam na marami palang Pilipino sa Central pag Sunday. May cellphone ako pero roaming sim lang (I did not know anyone because I was not allowed to go out. I did not know that there were many Filipinos in Central on Sunday. I have a mobile phone but I only had a roaming simcard)," said J.S.D.
Initially, she said Malazarte gave Php6,000 (about HK1,000 at the time) every month to her family back in the Philippines, until her Hong Kong employer took over the monthly payments, and raised it to Php8,000.
She recalls that the only time she was able to leave the flat during the more than two years that she was here was when the elderly woman had to be rushed to the hospital.
"Kahit noong nagkasakit ako at nalagas yng buhok ko, hindi ako makapag doctor. Hindi rin ako makatulog nang maayos kasi minsan nagigising yung matanda sa gabi o madaling ara, tapos nag sasalita bigla. (Even when I got sick, and my hair started to fall, I wasn't allowed to see the doctor. I could not sleep properly because the old woman would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, and start talking).
With her Philippine SIM card her only link to the outside world, J.S.M. took the chance to get in touch with her family back in the Philippines. When she could no longer take the isolation and abuse, she asked her parents to find a way to get her back home.
Her anxious folks, both farmers, wasted no time in seeking help from the local authorities in their province. In December 2009, they wrote a letter to the President of the Philippines, in which they expressed concern that their daughter could be a victim of human trafficking.
In the letter, the couple alleged that Malazarte and her husband had told them to remain silent and not to report the matter to authorities if "we want the safety of our daughter in HK".
They also recalled how they tried to contact their daughter's employers in Hong Kong several times to no avail. They said they decided to write the letter because Malazarte had promised them that their daughter would be home by Christmas that year.
Two Western Union receipts kept by J.S.D, showed Php8,000 being remitted to her mother on Feb 6, 2010, and another one to Malazarte in the same amount on Apr. 3 last year.
A few days after they sent the letter, or on Jan. 6, 2010, J.S.D.'s parents received a letter from an official of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, stating that their daughter may be indeed, a victim of human trafficking.
Their letter was reportedly forwarded to the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (of the Department of Foreign Affairs) and to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Hong Kong.
Despite this, no one apparently moved to rescue her from her employers.
According to J.S.D., when her father became ill in the second half of 2010, she cried and begged her employers to allow her to go home but they did not agree because of her illegal status.
On Sept. 21, she learned that her father had died of a heart attack and she refused to eat, until her employers relented and allowed her to leave.
They reportedly gave her $5,000 (money which she reportedly asked them to keep for her for two months, in hopes that they would allow her to go home and visit her sick father) and then sent her off in a taxi, alone, to the Consulate..
"Hindi ko naman alam ang pasikot-sikot dito. Binigyan nila ako ng pera, tapos nakipag usap yung amo ko ng Intsik doon sa driver na dalhin ako sa Consulate, pero huwag ko daw sabihin sa Konsulado na nag trabaho ako."
(I didn't know my way around. They gave me money and my employer spoke with the driver in Chinese, instructing him to take me to the Consulate. But I was told not to tell the Consulate that I worked here)," said J.S.D.
Getting to the Consulate did not appear to give her much relief. J.S.D. says she was simply given a letter to the Immigration Department explaining her situation, and told that she could seek shelter from the Catholic Centre.
Following a lengthy interview at the Immigration office in Wan Chai, J.S.D. headed back to Central to look for the Catholic Centre, but got lost along the way. When she got there at about 7p.m., the Centre was already closed, and not knowing anyone in Hong Kong, she decided to sleep on the overpass across the building.
"Ginising nga ako ng guwardiya kinabukasan dahil bawal daw ang matulog doon," she says. (I was awakened the next day by a guard who told me that sleeping there was not allowed).
She has been given shelter by the Centre since. |
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