By Tina G. Santos
Fr. Robert Reyes admitted in an interview that he was the source of the erroneous news report. He said he assumed Ampaguey had been terminated by her employer because this was usually what happened in cases of OFWs who became seriously ill in Hong Kong. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
It was a bittersweet homecoming for Leonida Ampaguey, a 51-year-old domestic helper in Hong Kong who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer.
“I think this was the right time for me to go home. [I’ll] take a rest and spend time with my family,” a visibly weak Ampaguey, who has worked in Hong Kong for 18 years, told reporters on arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Tuesday afternoon.
She was accompanied home by her eldest daughter, Dylan, who herself works as a domestic helper in the Chinese Special Administrative Region.
But first off, Ampaguey wanted to set the record straight.
She clarified that it was her decision to come home, contrary to a report in Tuesday’s issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer that said she was fired by her employer of 14 years when he learned she had cancer.
“I think it’s unfair to my employer. He was very nice to me. He gave me my salary even though I had not been doing much work,” said Ampaguey.
She said her excitement at coming home turned to anxiety on reading the news report a few hours before boarding her plane in Hong Kong.
“It was me who decided to come home because I feel very weak already. My employer could have easily terminated me but he did not. Even while I was confined in the hospital, he was giving me my salary. He was very supportive of me, that’s why I feel embarrassed he might read the erroneous report,” Ampaguey said.
At the airport, the wheelchair-bound Ampaguey was met by activist priest Fr. Robert Reyes and some former overseas Filipino workers, including Lisa, a breast cancer survivor.
“We’re here to show our support for Nida,” said Reyes, who in 2007 started the support group Buhay Ka for cancer victims and survivors among Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong.
Reyes admitted in a later interview that he was the source of the erroneous news report. He said he assumed Ampaguey had been terminated by her employer because this was usually what happened in cases of OFWs who became seriously ill in Hong Kong.
“Based on experience, many OFWs had their contracts terminated after their employers learned they had cancer. So I assumed it was the same in the case of Nida. I assumed her contract was not renewed. But now she says it was the other way around. She was the one who decided not to renew her contract which expires in October,” Reyes said.
Dylan said she had conflicting emotions about her mother’s homecoming.
“I feel happy and sad at the same time. Happy because she’s finally home but sad because of her condition,” she said.
She said she had decided to remain in the Philippines and not return to Hong Kong to take care of her ailing mother.
An ambulance arranged for by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration took Ampaguey from the airport to her home in Baguio City.
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