Here are the latest news updates about overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong. Compiled and updated regularly by your team at Pinoy OFW.
Ex-domestic worker jailed for using invalid employment contract to get loan
A Hong Kong court sentenced a Filipina to jail after she confessed to using a terminated employment contract to secure loan.
In a report by The SUN, a Kowloon Court magistrate sentenced Ranie Lou Buenacosa, 31, to four months in prison. Buenacosa was reportedly arrested upon her arrival at Hong Kong International Airport as a tourist.
She was reportedly under the Immigration Department’s wanted list for having fled the city after taking out the loan.
Buenacosa was found guilty to a charge of “obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception.” Magistrate Ada Yim rejected the defendant’s lawyer’s plea for leniency, saying the offense was serious because Buena Cosa had used an invalid contract. The defendant then fled to the Philippines after collecting the HK$35,700 loan from Prime Credit.
Buenacosa secured the loan from Prime Credit’s Tsim Sha Tsui branch on April 23, ten days after she was fired from her job.
Her lawyer said Buenacosa started her work as domestic worker in Hong Kong on March 23, 2018 but got fired from the job a little more than one year later.
After failing to find a new employer and needing money , she went to the financing company to take out a loan using her contract. The lawyer appealed for leniency, saying the defendant was remorseful and admitted the crime at the first instance.
Buenacosa had been in police custody since her arrest.
—
Filipina Domestic Worker Found Dead in Employer’s Home
A Filipina domestic worker was found dead in the early morning of September 9 in her employer’s home in Clear Water Bay.
In a news report by Hong Kong News, an employer of Grace RL, 53, from Tuguegarao, Cagayan, found her unconscious in their home at 11 Pik Sha Road, Clear Water Bay.
“The employer discovered the body of the domestic helper who had collapsed and so she made a report to the police,” a police spokeswoman said. Police authorities received the call at 7:32 a.m. and soon paramedics arrived at the scene but found out that the Filipina was already dead.
Initial police investigation ruled out foul play and believed the domestic worker’s death was due to natural causes.
Grace’s employer has been in contact with the Assistance to Nationals Section and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration for the repatriation of her remains back to the Philippines.
The Filipina has been working in Hong Kong for the past 30 years and active in church service.
Grace would be the third overseas Filipino domestic worker to die in Hong Kong since the start of September. Earlier, a 32-year-old domestic worker died in Yuen Long on September 1 after succumbing to heart attack. On September 6, another Filipina helper died of brain aneurysm in Tsuen Wan.
The post Hong Kong OFW News Updates appeared first on News.