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| Periera was found dead in one of the tower blocks in Royal Ascot in Shatin |
By Vir B. Lumicao
A 40-year-old Filipina domestic worker from Bacolod City was
found dead on the evening of Dec 4 in her kitchen bed space, one day after
reportedly complaining of migraine.
Police said she was “found collapsed” and certified dead,
with no suspicious circumstances. Her body was taken to a hospital where a
postmortem is expected to be performed.
An officer of the Consulate’s assistance to nationals, Danny
Baldon, said the helper, Johana Periera, had been working for her employers, a
local couple with two young sons, for just five months.
Periera was herself married with two young sons.
The employers reportedly said the helper had complained of
having a migraine on Saturday, Dec. 3, so they told her to just rest at their
15th floor flat in Royal Ascot estate in Fotan, Shatin, the next day,
which was her day off.
“The employers were out the whole day on Sunday and when
they returned home and checked on the maid in the evening, they found her
unconscious,” Baldon said.
Friends of the deceased told The SUN they had no idea that
Periera had suffered from migraine.
One of them, a domestic worker on the same block who
requested not to be named, said Periera had told her on Saturday that she had
an argument with her employer the previous day.
On Sunday, the friend said she, along with other fellow
Filipinas, were surprised to see an ambulance parked in front of their
residential block, and Periera’s female boss going down to meet the officers.
The employer reportedly told the Filipinas that Periera was
“unconscious”.
“We went up to the 15th floor to find out what
happened, but we saw police officers and ambulance staff with a wheeled
stretcher inside the house,” said the friend.
She said the kitchen, which was also Periera’s sleeping
quarters, was closed and guarded by two officers.
The friends went back to the ground floor and when the
police emerged from the lift after 5 minutes, they asked about her and one of
the officers replied “dead”.
Another friend of the deceased said the woman’s husband had
been calling her from Bacolod on Dec 4, asking about her and saying he was
worried because she didn’t make her usual Sunday phone call to her family.
