Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network
Sunday, Oct 09, 2011
URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan - Evangeline Vallejos is happily incredulous that she won her case for permanent residency in Hong Kong, for which she had been fighting for three years.
“Unbelievable,” she said on Saturday when reached by the Inquirer in China where she was vacationing with her employers. “But I am very happy I won. Ang tagal kong hinintay ito (I have long waited for this).”
Vallejos, 59, has been employed as a maid in Hong Kong since 1986. She said that while she was not sure she would win the case, she trusted the law granting permanent residency to foreigners who had lived in the Chinese territory for seven years.
She said many Filipino workers in Hong Kong were happy about the court decision handed down on Sept. 30 because it paved the way for thousands of others to seek permanent residency.
But in Barangay Paurido where Vallejos’ family lives, there was hardly a stir when news broke of her legal victory.
Family members took pride in her achievement. But while a door has been opened for them to live in Hong Kong, Vallejos’ husband, Zacarias Oria, said they were not planning to do so.
And Vallejos—who is using her maiden name as it appears in her passport—has not discussed with the family the possibility of settling there, Oria told the Inquirer in an interview recently.
In reports, Justice Johnson Lam was quoted as saying in his decision that the immigration provision denying foreign maids the right to gain permanent residency after seven years, which is granted to other foreigners, was inconsistent with Hong Kong’s Constitution.
But the Hong Kong government will appeal Lam’s ruling, the reports said. Fighter
Oria, 60, said he received a call from his wife shortly after the decision was issued.
“It was a very brief call. She just said, ‘Nanalo ang kaso (The case won),’ then the phone went dead. Then I saw the news on TV the next day,” he said.
Oria, a tricycle driver, has visited his wife in Hong Kong only twice. “Life is difficult there, and there are no available jobs for men. Most jobs there are for women,” he said.
Vallejos’ legal fight and her eventual victory did not come as a surprise for Oria and their five adult children.
Oria described his wife as “a fighter who will not stop fighting for what she thinks is right.”
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