Govt to Start Wage Consultations Now Special Envoy to China Fidel V
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HONGKONGNEWS.COM.HK Page 2 The No.1 Foreign Newspaper Vol.VI No.353 August 15, 2016 Former President and Govt to start wage consultations now special envoy to China Fidel V. Ramos visits HK to meet with friends who are FDHs ask for $5K close to Beijing. minimum wage Page 10 The POLO is planning to hold “mass registrations” for OFWs who are not yet registered with the BM Online. Page 20 WAGE HIKE. Foreign domestic workers march in Victoria Park to demand a minimum monthly wage of $5,000 and regulated working hours in this After a 22-year file photo taken on Labor Day. The government is expected to decide next month whether or not to increase the salary of FDHs. (Philip C. Tubeza) absence, the Miss By Philip C. Tubeza to $5,000 the minimum allowable wage GRANTE-HK), said they will ask for a (ang consultation meeting). Nagtawag na (MAW) for foreign domestic helpers in $790 wage hike for FDHs at the Labour sila ng mga migrant groups. Our demand Universe beauty IT’S that time of the year again. Hong Kong by October. Department on Monday (August 15). is $5,000,” Balladares said in an interview. pageant will return A group of Filipino domestic work- Dolores Balladares, chair of the United “This Monday na ang consultation na Turn to page 12 ers is asking the government to increase Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MI- pinatawag ng Labour. Isa’t kalahating oras to Manila next year. PUBLISHED BY HK PUBLICATIONS LTD. TEL: 2851 1766 2 NEWS August 15, 2016 HONGKONGNEWS.COM.HK FVR eyes ‘golf diplomacy’ with China By Cheryl M. Arcibal cuss including tourism, common fishing rights in claiming the entire South China grounds, and trade, among others. Sea through its nine-dash line policy. FORMER Philippine president Fidel V. Asked how he would respond if his “The tribunal concluded that there was Ramos is banking on golf and old friend- friends from China told him that a condi- no legal basis for China to claim historic ships to fulfill his duties as President tion for the resumption of talks between rights within the sea areas falling within Duterte’s special envoy to China in an ef- Manila and Beijing is to disregard the July the nine-dash line,” the PCA said. fort to rekindle “warm relations” between 12 decision of the Permanent Court of Ar- Manila filed the case in 2013 against Manila and Beijing. bitration, Ramos said he would tell them Beijing, which refused to participate in the Ramos, accompanied by wife Ming and to “talk to our officials”. case, saying the tribunal had “no jurisdic- a grandson, faced Hong Kong-based me- “I’ll say ‘don’t talk to me anymore, talk tion” over the issue. dia in a press conference at the Philippine to our officials’ because that’s the official The tribunal said Beijing’s historical Consulate General on August 9. phase that will lead to the nature of our fu- rights “were extinguished to the extent “I am here on a fishing expedition and ture relations, but I’m just saying we must they were incompatible with the exclusive we’ll play a little golf, and many of my Ramos (second from right) speaks with journalists at a press conference all be cognizant of this need,” he added. economic zones provided for in the Con- friends are from around here to Shenzhen Ramos also said the Philippines would vention” – referring to the UN Convention to Zhuhai up to Ghuangzhou,” he said . in Beijing. in Hainan,” the 88-year-old Ramos said. pursue both bilateral and multilateral talks on the Law of the Seas or the UNCLOS. Specifically, Ramos named Wu Shi- “There is no very serious planning about Any visit to Beijing, he added, would to address the South China Sea dispute. “China had violated the Philippines’ chun, president of the Hainan-headquar- this. My job is not to negotiate, but to help depend on the outcome of his “informal, “Our approach right now and this is why sovereign rights in the exclusive economic tered National Institute for South China pave the way, break the ice, so to speak, non-official meetings” and to the decision we are here is bilateral [talks] with China zone by interfering with Philippine fishing Sea Studies, as one of those he will be and rekindle the friendship that we had of Duterte after an evaluation of Ramos’ and of course mine is just informal, casual, and petroleum exploration, by construct- meeting during his “very flexible” four- to “I am here in Hong Kong... because it is trip to Hong Kong. and unofficial, but I am very positive that ing artificial islands and failing to prevent five-day stay in Hong Kong. from Hong Kong that we easily go where In meeting with these friends, he added it can be successful,” he said. Filipino fishermen from fishing in the He said he would be meeting “old we might go, meaning Shenzhen, Guang- that Manila and Beijing shared common The Netherlands-based court ruled that zone,” the PCA said. friends” who have links to high officials zhou, and even Xiamen, and also Haikou points of interest that they could dis- Beijing had violated Manila’s sovereign New complaints vs Emry’s By Cheryl M. Arcibal Department. June said they have temporarily stopped Mojica said the police have been call- processing contracts from Emry’s, said A fresh batch of 67 complaints against ing the complainants to ask them if they to be the biggest provider of Filipino do- Emry’s employment agency was for- wanted to pursue their refund claims at mestic helpers in Hong Kong. warded by the Philippine Consulate the Small Claims Tribunal. POLO records showed that since Jan- General to the Hong Kong authorities. From June 28 to July 14, the PCG had uary this year, Emry’s had submitted Lorna Mojica, Assistance to Nation- forwarded to Hong Kong authorities 178 676 FDH contracts. The owner of Em- als section officer at the PCG, said 43 complaints against Emrys. ry’s insisted to POLO officials that she complaints were forwarded on July 26, Complainants said they paid at least did not intend to dupe the jobseekers and and 24 complaints on August 3 to the $10,000 each so their papers to work in promised that she would refund them. Hong Kong Police and the Employment the UK or Canada could be processed. She claimed that she was the one who Agencies Administration of the Labour Labor Attache’ Jalilo dela Torre in was duped by her contact in the UK. HONGKONGNEWS.COM.HK August 15, 2016 NEWS 3 Transgender Pinay POLO plans to hold civil service exam in November By Philip C. Tubeza for the LET next month has reached 696. takes govt to court He said there were 334 applicants for the LABOR Attaché Jalilo Dela Torre has exam for elementary teachers. Five of the By Philip C. Tubeza proposed holding civil service exams in applicants are from Macau. November here in Hong Kong. The PRC will email the Philippine A Filipino transgender woman has asked Dela Torre said the Civil Service Com- Overseas Labor Office the final list of -ex the High Court to declare as unconstitu- mission earlier suggested that the exam aminees and they will have to pay a fee tional the decision of Hong Kong authori- be held next month but he turned it down of US$45. ties to send her to a prison for men. because the Professional Regulation Com- For those who have questions, please Luigi R. Navarro, 21, also complained mission is holding a licensure exam for call Gloria at 2866-0640 (POLO land- that she was not given hormone treatment teachers (LET). line), 5529-1880 (POLO hotline), or leave when she was locked up at the Siu Lam “OK na yung civil service exam pero a message on the POLO-HongKong SAR Psychiatric Center and that she was strip- ang gusto nila September. Ang sabi ko, Facebook page. searched by male prison officers. “Impossible.” Kako, anong gagawin The salary of a public school teacher “Prison rules are unconstitutional,” said ninyo sa amin? Papatayin ninyo kami?” in the Philippines under the 2016 Salary Clive Grossman SC, the Filipino’s lawyer. Dela Torre jokingly said in an interview. Standardization Law (Teacher 1, entry Navarro was arrested in June 2014 for “Nagcounter ako na November para at level, Salary Grade 11, Step 1) is P19,077 illegal drugs and was sentenced to 13 least may time. Hindi pa sila nakasagot per month, including a personal emergen- months in prison. She is now back in the The High Court in Admiralty kung OK sila sa November,” he added. cy relief allowance of P2,000. Philippines. Dela Torre said that those who want to There are also other benefits such as Barrister Earl Deng, Navarro’s other look after other prisoners. Wong said. take the civil service exam should be at one-step increment pay for every three lawyer, said his client asked that she be She said Navarro could not have been She said that, when Navarro was going least 18 years old and should have finished years of satisfactory performance; hard- given hormone treatment—she had been imprisoned with female prisoners because to take a bath or go to the toilet, all the oth- a four-year course in college. There is no ship allowance equivalent to 15 to 25 per- receiving it since she was 12---but it took prison officials also had to consider their er male prisoners were told to leave first.