MANILA/HONG KONG: A Filipino domestic helper has been hailed as a hero after emerging from a deadly Hong Kong tower fire with her employer’s three-month-old baby and elderly mother.
Just a day after arriving in the city, Rhodora Alcaraz, 28, found herself trapped and alone with her new employer’s loved ones in the family’s smoke-filled Wang Fuk Court apartment before being rescued by firefighters just in time, according to accounts of her ordeal shared by her family and friends.
Alcaraz’s story has for some highlighted the enduring role of the city’s hundreds of thousands of domestic helpers who cook, clean and care for the young and elderly, often living in cramped spaces and earning modest wages in one of the world’s most expensive cities.
“I salute you, Rhodora, and all overseas foreign workers who continue to sacrifice for their families even while far from home,” Senator Imee Marcos, the sister of the Philippines president, said in a Facebook post on Sunday after visiting Alcaraz in hospital.
She posted a photo of Alcaraz lying in a hospital bed wearing a purple gown and a face mask and giving a thumbs up.
“A true modern-day hero and a model of compassion and courage of Filipinos in a foreign land,” the government’s Overseas Workers Welfare Administration wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday, prompting hundreds of comments from well-wishers.
Her employer’s baby and mother were also admitted to intensive care but were in a stable condition, her employer Kanon Chung said in a Facebook post.
Former employer prayed for miracle
Panicked audio messages Alcaraz sent to her sister during Wednesday’s blaze — that killed at least 151 people — went viral after they were shared online by family and friends trying to locate her in the chaotic aftermath.
“I’m feeling very weak. I can’t breathe,” she said in one of the clips, sobbing and struggling to speak.
Rhoda Lynn Dayo, Alcaraz’s former employer, was among those trying to reach people in Hong Kong to help establish her whereabouts, she said.
“I truly expected that she wouldn’t be found anymore. So I prayed: Please God ... Perform a miracle, Lord,” she said.
Alcaraz, known by the nickname Jackie, had cared for Dayo’s children from the age of 17 for more than four years back in the Philippines.
She was so trusted by the family that Dayo said she was comfortable leaving her children with Alcaraz even when she had to travel to the US
“The way she cared for the kids was different — there was real love ... I don’t doubt that she would put her life on the line for the child she was caring for,” Dayo said.
Nine Indonesian domestic workers and one Filipino are confirmed among the dead at Wang Fuk Court, the city’s deadliest fire in more than 75 years. More than 40 people remain missing.
There are around 368,000 foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong, according to the latest figures, accounting for nearly a tenth of the workforce. The majority come from the Philippines and Indonesia, and in recent years there have been increasing numbers from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand.
Like many of her peers, Alcaraz — who has eight siblings — decided to work overseas to earn higher wages she could send back home to support her family.
She worked for two years in Qatar, before taking up the job in Hong Kong.
“We are poor. Our father is just a fisherman, that is why she decided to work abroad to help the family,” Alcaraz’s younger sister, Raychell Loreto, said.
“We are so proud of our sister,” she added.
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Philippines celebrates ‘heroic’ helper who survived Hong Kong fire
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Philippines celebrates ‘heroic’ helper who survived Hong Kong fire
- Helper arrived in Hong Kong day before disaster
- President’s sister visited ‘modern-day hero’ in hospital
Thousands in Kosovo march against war crimes trials on 18th anniversary of independence declaration
- Protesters, many wrapped in red and black Albanian flags, braved cold and snowy weather in the capital, Pristina, to voice their opposition to the proceedings in The Hague
- PM Albin Kurti added that ‘the KLA-led war was pure, liberation (struggle) and an anti-colonial war ... a just struggle of an occupied and oppressed people under apartheid’
PRISTINA, Kosovo: An air of defiance marked Kosovo’s independence celebrations on Tuesday as thousands of people joined a march in support of former fighters who are facing trial at a Netherlands-based court for alleged war crimes during a 1998-1999 separatist war from Serbia.
Protesters, many wrapped in red and black Albanian flags, braved cold and snowy weather in the capital, Pristina, to voice their opposition to the proceedings in The Hague against former president and rebel leader Hashim Thaci and three others accused of atrocities during and after the conflict that killed some 13,000 people.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kosovo’s security forces paraded in Pristina as part of the independence ceremonies, and Parliament held a special session.
The war started in 1998 when the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army launched its struggle for independence and Serbia responded with a brutal crackdown. The war ended after NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days in 1999, eventually forcing it to pull out its troops from the territory.
Serbia still does not recognize the 2008 declaration of independence of Kosovo and this has been a source of persistent tension in the volatile Balkan region. As both Kosovo and Serbia seek European Union membership, they have been told they must normalize ties before joining.
Prosecutors at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague — which formally is part of Kosovo’s judicial system although seated abroad — have asked for a maximum 45-year prison sentence for Thaci and the other defendants. Thaci also faces a separate trial on charges of intimidating witnesses that will begin later this month.
Officials and protesters in Kosovo have criticized the proceedings as political and designed to strike a false balance with Serbia whose political and military leaders previously had been tried and convicted of war crimes in Kosovo by a separate UN court.
Protesters at Tuesday’s march held banners reading “History cannot be rewritten” and “Freedom for the liberators.” They arranged metal fences around a landmark independence monument and placed a sign reading ”Kosovo in Prison” on top of it.
President Vjosa Osmani said in a statement that “truth cannot be changed by attempts to rewrite history or to tarnish and devalue the struggle of Kosovo’s people for freedom.”
Prime Minister Albin Kurti added that “the KLA-led war was pure, liberation (struggle) and an anti-colonial war ... a just struggle of an occupied and oppressed people under apartheid.”
In Belgrade, a Serbian government liaison office for Kosovo described the independence declaration 18 years ago as a “flagrant violation of international law.” The statement alleged “systematic terror” and persecution against minority Serbs in Kosovo.
The United States and most EU countries are among more than 100 nations that have recognized Kosovo’s independence while Russia and China have backed Serbia’s claim on the territory.
Thaci resigned from office in 2020 to defend himself against the 10 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The court and an associated prosecutor’s office were created after a 2011 report by the Council of Europe, a human rights body, following allegations that KLA fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners and killed Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians. The organ harvesting allegations haven’t been included in indictments issued by the court.
Protesters, many wrapped in red and black Albanian flags, braved cold and snowy weather in the capital, Pristina, to voice their opposition to the proceedings in The Hague against former president and rebel leader Hashim Thaci and three others accused of atrocities during and after the conflict that killed some 13,000 people.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kosovo’s security forces paraded in Pristina as part of the independence ceremonies, and Parliament held a special session.
The war started in 1998 when the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army launched its struggle for independence and Serbia responded with a brutal crackdown. The war ended after NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days in 1999, eventually forcing it to pull out its troops from the territory.
Serbia still does not recognize the 2008 declaration of independence of Kosovo and this has been a source of persistent tension in the volatile Balkan region. As both Kosovo and Serbia seek European Union membership, they have been told they must normalize ties before joining.
Prosecutors at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague — which formally is part of Kosovo’s judicial system although seated abroad — have asked for a maximum 45-year prison sentence for Thaci and the other defendants. Thaci also faces a separate trial on charges of intimidating witnesses that will begin later this month.
Officials and protesters in Kosovo have criticized the proceedings as political and designed to strike a false balance with Serbia whose political and military leaders previously had been tried and convicted of war crimes in Kosovo by a separate UN court.
Protesters at Tuesday’s march held banners reading “History cannot be rewritten” and “Freedom for the liberators.” They arranged metal fences around a landmark independence monument and placed a sign reading ”Kosovo in Prison” on top of it.
President Vjosa Osmani said in a statement that “truth cannot be changed by attempts to rewrite history or to tarnish and devalue the struggle of Kosovo’s people for freedom.”
Prime Minister Albin Kurti added that “the KLA-led war was pure, liberation (struggle) and an anti-colonial war ... a just struggle of an occupied and oppressed people under apartheid.”
In Belgrade, a Serbian government liaison office for Kosovo described the independence declaration 18 years ago as a “flagrant violation of international law.” The statement alleged “systematic terror” and persecution against minority Serbs in Kosovo.
The United States and most EU countries are among more than 100 nations that have recognized Kosovo’s independence while Russia and China have backed Serbia’s claim on the territory.
Thaci resigned from office in 2020 to defend himself against the 10 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The court and an associated prosecutor’s office were created after a 2011 report by the Council of Europe, a human rights body, following allegations that KLA fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners and killed Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians. The organ harvesting allegations haven’t been included in indictments issued by the court.
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