Pinay in HK pleads guilty to violating immigration laws

A Filipina allegedly forced to work as a domestic helper in Hong Kong for more than two years pleaded guilty in late July to violating the territory’s immigration laws, according to a report on news site Sun. The report said the Filipina had overstayed and worked illegally in Hong Kong. The 31-year-old Filipina had initially denied the charges of violating immigration laws, but changed her plea when she appeared again before Deputy Magistrate Lawrence Hui Cheuk-lun. The Filipina said she decided to change her plea because she did not want her case to drag on further. She added she was informed that a guilty plea will allow her to act as a prosecution witness against the couple who forced her to work for more than two years. The Filipina was first charged on Sept. 22, 2010, after she surrendered to immigration authorities. She said she is willing to give information to immigration authorities on whether it was her employer who had breached the law. She would also help the prosecution in going after her employer, she added. On the other hand, Hui reminded the Filipina to keep in close contact with her duty lawyers and take proactive steps to liaise with them. Ordeal The Filipina said her former employer in the Philippines, a certain businesswoman Ruby Malazarte, went with her to Hong Kong in March 2008. Malazarte, a resident of Tubay in Agusan del Norte, is reportedly married to a Chinese Hong Kong resident. The Filipina said she had been working for the couple for only three months in Agusan when Malazarte’s sibling in Hong Kong sought for help in getting someone to look after their bedridden mother. She said Malazarte recommended her for the job and was told that she would go to Hong Kong initially as a tourist. The Filipina agreed but added she was not aware that this was illegal because it was her first time to leave the Philippines. “Akala ko okay lang na ganun (I thought that would be okay)," she said. She was allegedly told that once she was in Hong Kong, her new employers would “handle and help process her papers for work." She said she was told not to tell anyone about her status in the city. She also said she was never allowed to leave the flat and was told to guard her elderly ward all the time. The only time she was able to leave the flat during the more than two years that she was there was when her ward had to be rushed to the hospital, she said. Initially, she said Malazarte gave P6,000 a month to her family back in the Philippines, until her Hong Kong employer took over the monthly payments, and raised it to P8,000. She also recalled that 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 refused. On Sept. 21 last year, 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 then sent her off in a taxi to the consulate, alone. At the consulate, she was told to seek shelter from the Catholic Center. She has been given shelter by the center since. Call home When she could no longer take the isolation and abuse, she used her mobile phone to call her parents in the Philippines to find a way to get her back home. Her folks, both farmers, sought help from local authorities in their province. They wrote to then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in December 2009 and voiced concern their daughter could be a victim of human trafficking. They also recalled how they tried to contact their daughter’s employers in Hong Kong several times to no avail. On Jan. 6, 2010, the Filipina’s parents received a letter from an official of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration saying their daughter may be a victim of human trafficking. — JE, GMA News