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| Esmaya (in red) in a huddle with supporters after the hearing. |
A Filipino was jailed 14 months for illegal work while his friend, a fellow Filipino who was also arrested by Immigration officers last Nov. 16 for helping him build a brick fence in Sai Kung, got off with a suspended sentence after both appeared yesterday at Shatin Court.
Neil Oliver Paclipan, a 45-year-old asylum seeker who has a
deportation order in force against him, pleaded guilty but all he got from
Magistrate David Chum was a one-month discount from the starting point of 15 months’
jail, instead of a one-third reduction in sentence.
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Joeffrey Esmaya, a 39-year-old domestic helper, got six weeks’
jail, reduced by a third from nine weeks because of his guilty plea. And because
of his claim that he was just helping a friend and did not get paid for the
work, Chum suspended his sentence for two years.
“You need not go to jail now,” Chum told Esmaya.
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But Chum warned: “If you reoffend, even if you did not get
paid, you will be imprisoned.”
Under Section 40 of the Immigration Ordinance, breach of condition
of stay is punishable by imprisonment of up to two years and fine of up to
$50,000. Among these conditions is that domestic helpers such as Esmaya are not
allowed to accept any extra jobs, whether paid or unpaid.
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Esmaya was terminated by his employer after the case started,
but his lawyer told the court that the employer of his wife who is also a
domestic helper, agreed to hire him.
Paclipan had a heavier penalty because he was the contractor
for the job, was paid $6,400 and had a deportation order against him, Chum said.
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Under the Immigration Ordinance, his offense was punishable
by imprisonment of up to three years and fine of up to $50,000.
Paclipan’s lawyer said he arrived in 2019 as a tourist, but
stayed on.
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In 2021, he surrendered to the Immigration Department and applied for refugee status.
He has since been issued a deportation order, but his
application for non-refoulment has prevented the Hong Kong gvernment from forcibly
sending him home to the Philippines.
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The lawyer said Paclipan did the offense to earn extra money to be able to support his six children in the Philippines, and his mother who has brain tumor.
He was also remoreful and promised not to reoffend.
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But Magistrate Chum said that after listening to the lawyer’s
mitigation to lighten Paclipan’s penalty, he only recognized the latter’s
surrender as an overstayer as a mitigating factor, and reduced the jail term by
one month.
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| PADALA NA! |
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