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| Ylagan |
A change of address of Emry’s Service Staff Employment Agency/Mike’s Secretarial Services owner Ester P. Ylagan has led to a rescheduling of cases against her at the Small Claims Tribunal, forcing her alleged victims to return to court on yet another day.
This developed over the past fortnight even as the Employment Agency Administration told The SUN it had already filed a criminal case against Ylagan.
The agency owner is being sued by around 50 Filipinos who each claims to have paid her between $10,000 and $15,000 for fictitious jobs in Canada and Britain. But the total number of those who claim to have been victimized in the jobs scam is close to 500, with about half of them filing cases with the Philippine Consulate.
A HK Labour Department official, however, clarified that the criminal prosecution of Ylagan is not a police case but a Department of Labour action. He said it was up to the police to file a separate case against Ylagan.
The agency owner has not been seen since hundreds of applicants for purported jobs in Britain and Canada began filing cases with the claims tribunal for refunds against her in July.
She also notified the tribunal of a change in address more than a month later, causing court notices to be returned unopened, and several cases to be reset so the claimants could amend her address, for which they had to pay additional fees.
“That could be a tactic of Ma’am Ester (Ylagan), to delay the hearings until we the claimants get tired,” said one of the complainants.
Most of the cases have been consolidated and are due to be heard in big batches in November and December this year.
On Monday, Oct 24, the tribunal set for hearing 24 claims against Ylagan by adding 12 cases not heard on Oct 21 because of super typhoon Haima to another 12 originally set for that day.
The tribunal reset the hearings to Oct 22 but moved them again for last Monday, causing claimants who are mostly domestic workers to worry because their employers do not allow them to go out on weekdays.
The new amendments, which cost $20 each time, are also adding to the costs of the claimants. They already had to pay filing fees of between $50 and $80 each, depending on the amount of their claim, plus photocopying charges and transportation fees from as far away as the New Territories each time they are told to go to court.
But the biggest worry is still getting their employer’s permission to take at least half the day off for the hearing. Many could not even tell their employer about the case as they worry about being fired for trying to apply for a new job while still in their employ.
During the Oct. 22 hearings, the clerks of court ask claimants who simply wrote Ester P. Ylagan as the respondent to amend both her name and address.
“The respondent’s name should be amended to Ester P. Ylagan t/a Mike’s Secretarial Services,” the clerk said when she was presented a victim’s claim form.
She said Ylagan’s new mailing address should be 5/F Lemmi Centre, 52 Hoi Yuen Road, Kwuntong, Kowloon, as she had indicated in a reply to a court notice.
Apparently, she had also stopped picking up mail from her previously registered residential address in Aberdeen. The house, which used to be jointly owned by her and her estranged husband Ricardo, had been turned over to their son Ridge Michael on Aug. 24, the day before the first case against Ester was heard.
All claims that require amendments have now been adjourned until Dec 8, whereas those vetted a week earlier had been reset to Dec 1.
