Philippine Consul General to Hong Kong Raly Tejada disclosed that he will be meeting with Hong Kong Police Chief Stephen Lo sometime next week to bring up security concerns of Filipinos amid the ongoing protests in the city as of late.
Other matters related to the Filipinos’ work and stay in the country will also be raised during his scheduled meeting with Chief Executive Carrie Lam in the first week of December.
ConGen to Meet with Hong Kong Top Officials to Raise Filcom Concerns
ConGen Tejada bared the agenda for his scheduled meetings with the country’s top officials during his first consultation meeting with Filipino community leaders at the Consulate last Sunday (Nov 3), as shared in a report by the Sun HK.
First among the issues he will be discussing with Hong Kong officials will be the circulation of pictures of a supposed “crime report form” on Facebook that foreign domestic workers could use to snitch on their employers who keep protest gear and weapons such as petrol bombs in their homes.
The form which mentions a reward or “bounty” for any relevant information involving the ongoing protests in the city and the people involved in it requires informants to report such details to a website, http://803.hk, or a WeChat number supposedly belonging to the Hong Kong Police. However, a quick check of the website shows it is written only in Chinese, making the information highly questionable, as explained by ConGen Tejada.
Tejada expressed concern over such propaganda because it only puts Filipino migrant workers at an extremely vulnerable position amid the ongoing political unrest in the city.
In line with this, Tejada advised Filcom leaders not to fall for unverified information such as this one and to communicate anything suspicious with the Consulate.
He also noted that this is not the first time FDWs have been targeted by anti-protest groups. The first false information to circulate on Facebook was about migrant workers supposedly being paid HKD 3,000 each to join the protests.
On that note, he expressed his confidence that Filipino workers would not fall easily for such divisive tactics as they are intelligent and adhere to the Consulate’s oft-repeated advisory to keep themselves safe.
Another concern that he would like to raise would be regarding the supposed plan of the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment to embark on a mass repatriation of OFWs from Hong Kong because of protest-related violence.
He clarified that this would not be possible because DOLE would also have to consult with the Consulate in Hong Kong regarding such actions, and though there is and will always be a threat to safety, the situation in Hong Kong as of late still “does not merit the repatriation or the mass exodus of Filipinos here.”
Despite all this, Tejada gave the same advice that he gives to all other Filipinos: “Keep safe.”
And finally, Tejada also suggested to hold regular meetings with FilCom leaders to keep the community abreast of the recent developments related to their work and stay in the country.
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