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.
Philippines celebrates ‘heroic’ helper who survived Hong Kong fire
https://arab.news/cwq3e
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
Philippine lawmakers start VP Duterte impeachment hearings
- The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds
MANILA: A Philippine congressional committee began impeachment hearings Monday that could dash Vice President Sara Duterte’s run for the country’s top job.
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who recently announced her candidacy for the 2028 presidential election, was impeached by the country’s House of Representatives last year only to see the Supreme Court toss the case out over procedural issues.
The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds while in office and will see the House justice committee debate three such complaints.
A fourth case was dropped by complainants who hoped to speed up the process.
Duterte also stands accused of making a death threat against her former ally and current President Ferdinand Marcos, with whom she is engaged in an explosive political feud.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the 2028 presidential race.
The latest impeachment bid faces a changed environment with the vice president ahead in recent polls, analysts told AFP.
“The political context will be very different, especially now that Sara declared her candidacy,” University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said.
“It’s definitely going to weigh on the minds of the members of the House of Representatives,” Franco said, adding that a vote for impeachment would effectively see a lawmaker’s career “marked for death.”
Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University agreed saying: “It is ultimately a question of whether the patronage of the current administration outweighs their fear of Duterte’s condemnation.”
The same committee hearing the case against Duterte last month tossed out a pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos, ruling that allegations of corruption over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects lacked substance.
Michael Wesley Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s defense team, told AFP they were closely monitoring deliberations and trusted “the same standards” used in the Marcos hearing would be applied.
