OFW laglag bala victim to meet with employer in HK on Nov. 14

Gloria Ortinez, the 56-year-old victim of the alleged "laglag bala" extortion scheme at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), will fly to Hong Kong on Saturday to personally talk with her employer and try to secure her old job back.
 
According to Administrator Rebecca Calzado of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Ortinez, a domestic helper who has been working overseas for 26 years, will be accompanied by Labor Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunzad III.
 
"This Saturday Usec Lagunzad will be accompanying OFW Ortinez to HK para makausap niya directly yung employer," Lagunzad said Thursday.
 
Ortinez's lawyer, Spocky Farolan, said the OFW's ticket was sponsored by the Blas Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, which has been helping Ortinez since she was barred from leaving the country over alleged illegal possession of ammunition.
 
"[It's] her employment, if employer is still willing to accept her or if Nanay Gloria will be packing her things to go home," Farolan said in a text message when asked on Ortinez's purpose in meeting with her employer of 13 years.
 
Farolan said Ortinez will depart 8 a.m.
 
Ortinez, who was supposed to return to Hong Kong last October 25 after commemorating her mother's third death anniversary in the Philippines, was stopped at the airport after a bullet was supposedly found in her luggage.
 
She said the bullet was not hers and was planted in her bag by somebody.
 
On Wednesday, the Pasay City Prosecutor's Office dismissed the illegal possession of ammunition complaint filed against her "for lack of probable cause."
 
"This is good news and should help," Calzado said of the dismissal of the complaint.
 
Ortinez was among the resource persons on Thursday's hearing on the alleged "laglag bala" scheme. In her testimony, she narrated her ordeal at the hands of airport authorities who arrested her for carrying a bullet in the airport.
 
Susan Ople of the Blas Ople Center said the meeting between Ortinez and her employer will take place based on the "convenience of the employer."
"Monday, balik na kami hopefully if things turn out well, Nanay Gloria can stay behind and resume her life as an OFW," she said in a separate text message.
Ople also said Ortinez will meet with the Filipino community in Hong Kong on Sunday. "We are asking for prayers that the best outcome shall prevail," she said. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

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