Editor's Note |
20 years of service to the community
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Time flies.
Exactly 20 years ago this month, The SUN shone for the Filipinos in Hong Kong. It was
the fulfillment of a dream that took shape years earlier, or shortly after I arrived here in 1987 and
realized there was no reliable information channel serving the community.
But turning that dream into reality proved to be difficult. Several people offered to fund
the publication of a news-paper, but everyone wanted a business model different from what we had
in mind.
Details...
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Anak Araw |
Pagpapabaya
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Nitong nakaraang buwan ay naging saksi tayo sa nangyari kay Manang Gloria Ortinez,
ang OFW na biktima ng tanim-bala sa Manila airport. Halos buong araw kasi ay naglagi siya sa
opisina ng The SUN, kasama ang mga naghatid sa kanya na sina Susan "Toots" Ople na tagataguyod ng
mga OFW, at ang abogado niyang si Atty Spocky Farolan, kaya nasaksihan namin siya nang malapitan.
Details...
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Migrant's Forum |
Nanay Gloria's journey to HK
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President Benigno Simeon Aquino III recently told the media that cases of tanim-bala
were sensationalized, citing figures to prove his point. As an OFW advocate, I respectfully
disagree. Looking at this from a purely numbers perspective could lead one to overlook the deep trauma
that such incidents have caused its innocent victims.
Had he met and spoken to 56-year old OFW Gloria Ortinez, our President would have
learned the following:
Details...
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Know Your Rights |
The Mission
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This was the speech delivered by the Mission for Migrant Workers' general manager,
Cynthia Tellez, at the launch of the 10-year Impact Evaluation Report of the Mission's work held on
December 5, 2015 at the Li Hall of St. John's Cathedral.
Details...
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With at least one -- and possibly two disqualification cases in the presidential race --
the Supreme Court has assured the nation politics will not dictate its decisions.
See this month's stories...
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Staff and volunteers at the Mission for Migrant Workers had reason to celebrate when
they launched the non-government organization's 10-year Impact Evaluation Report at Li Hall of St
John's Cathedral on Dec. 4. Nearly all, or 97% of migrants who sought assistance said that they were
helped by the Mission, and more than half of them (57%) said they would recommend the NGO to others.
See this month's stories...
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October 2015
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Hong Kong News
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You will surely go to jail.
This was what a Hong Kong magistrate told Nicholas Cousins and Herminia Garcia, after
they both pleaded guilty on Sept. 25 to various offences uncovered after their 15-year-old
daughter, Blanca, jumped to her death from their
19th floor apartment in April.
Magistrate So Wai-tak's statement followed a long and impassioned plea from the
couple's lawyer, Giles Surman for leniency, saying the two were still suffering from the death of their
daughter, and were remorseful.
Surman also said putting the couple behind bars would impact greatly on the future of
their younger daughter who is still grieving from the loss of her sister.
The younger girl, who appeared in court for the first time, also sent a letter to the
magistrate asking that he does not impose a jail term on her parents, who she said "pretty much fulfill
the definition of best parents."
The girl who turned 15 last July, said that having lost her only sister recently, it would be
even more painful if her parents were jailed.
"If my parents were taken away from me, where will I go?", she implored.
Surman finished off by saying that during their last conference before the court hearing,
Cousins told him that he would be willing to go to prison forever "if it would bring Blanca back".
But after listening patiently to the mitigation for nearly two hours, So asked Cousins and
Garcia to stand before him, then proclaimed: "I will have to say that an immediate custodial sentence
is inevitable".
So said he needed more time to decide on the sentence, and set the next hearing date on Oct. 9.
Garcia, 53, a Filipina who is known to friends as Grace Cousins, pleaded guilty to breaching
her conditions of stay by overstaying her visa for more than 20 years.
British executive Cousins, 57, pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding and abetting Garcia's
violation of her visa conditions and to two counts of failing to register the births of their two daughters.
For the first time, the court heard that Garcia came to Hong Kong to work as a domestic
helper in 1990, two years after she had gotten married in the Philippines. But after two years of
working here, her marriage reportedly broke down because her husband has been unfaithful and had a
"drinking problem".
Garcia finished a two year-contract, but was terminated shortly before completing a second
one. She applied for a visa extension on Nov. 7, 1994, but was denied and told to return to the
Philippines. She never did.
The following year, she met Cousins, a self-made insurance executive who had just been
posted to Hong Kong by his company, Jardine Lloyd Thompsons (JLT). The two began living together
in August 1996, when Cousins reportedly first became aware of Garcia's undocumented status.
Three years later their firstborn, Blanca Pamela was born, and just eleven months
afterwards, the younger daughter came.
Meanwhile, Cousins continued to climb up the corporate ladder, until he became JLT's
managing director in 2008. He reportedly resigned from this post on Aug. 12, five days after Blanca's
death. Last Sept. 14, he also resigned as a member of various company boards.
Surman said the first question that many would ask is why Cousins did not marry Garcia.
Apart from the fact that Garcia was already married, he said "unfortunately, in the
Philippines, rightly or wrongly, there is no divorce". You can have legal separation and annulment, but this is
just done if there is an agreement between the parties."
Still, he said the couple was very much aware that they were violating immigration laws
and agonized over this each time they had a child.
The last time they talked seriously about legalizing their union was sometime after May 21
last year, when Garcia's estranged husband died.
"This provided the couple an opportunity to marry but they could not do this in Hong
Kong because she (Garcia) did not have identity documents," said Surman.
He also told the court that the hospital where both girls were born duly reported their births
to the authorities. However, Cousins failed to comply with the requirement that he complete the
registration within the mandated period of 42 days because this would have revealed Garcia's
illegal status.
Despite not having identity documents, Garcia and the two girls were included in
Cousins' medical insurance privilege so they had adequate health care.
Getting into regular schools was, however, a different matter. Not having the required
identity documents, the two girls were put in a tutorial center, the Sylvan Learning Center, after kindergarten.
Surman was quick to say that contrary to widespread belief that the Cousins daughters were
not given adequate education, they attended Sylvan four times a week where they were taught
various subjects. At the time of her death, Blanca was said to be working through a number of GCSE
(General Certificate of Secondary Education) papers.
Her younger sister, on the other hand, was made to undergo an assessment for her
educational experience and socialization recently, and the report indicated that she was "intelligent, well
adjusted and socially competent".
The younger Cousins is said to have moved to an international school after Immigration
Department provided her with a Hong Kong ID card a few days after her undocumented status was
uncovered following her sister's tragic death.
Given these, Surman said that any notion that the deprivation of identity had caused social
and emotional difficulty on the young girls "can now be put to rest."
Still, he could not offer any explanation as to why Blanca felt compelled to take her life.
On the day she died, the family reportedly went out to dinner in Tsimshatsui, and upon
returning home, the couple decided to watch home movies while the girls retired to their bedrooms.
Shortly afterwards, the parents saw Blanca go into the bathroom. When she did not
reappear after some time, they decided to check on her by knocking on the door but got no answer.
Alarmed, Cousins broke down the door and was horrified to see the window open and Blanca gone.
He rushed down to the ground floor with his younger daughter trailing him, and there
saw Blanca on the pavement, already dead. "Why did she jump? We simply do not know," said Surman.
Pending the sentencing, Cousins remains out on $10,000 bail while Garcia paid $100,000
cash for bail and secured a surety in the same amount from Cousins' colleague and friend,
Michael Wellsted.
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