17/10/2025
๐จ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ ๐ฎ ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ธ๐ถ๐๐ฎ ๐ป๐ฎ! ๐
The two Filipina domestic workers who were found by police at about 10:30pm Thursday in Shatin after missing for 12 days. are set to go home next week after their respective employers terminated their employment contracts.
MWO said 24-year-old Imee M. Pabuaya will leave on October 20 as her employer gave notice of termination when she was reported missing on October 6. Aleli P. Tibay, 33, will go home on October 22 as her employer terminated their contract two days after, or on October 8.
Under Hong Kong employment laws, foreign domestic workers must leave within 14 days after the termination of their work contracts, unless this was done under exceptional circumstances, like when they were abused, or their employer resettles in another country.
Officers of the Migrant Workers Office who fetched them from the Shatin Police Station last night said the two were dressed in the same clothes they were seen in a surveillance video in Tsuen Wan in the afternoon of October 4 when they were went missing, except for Aleli who had changed into a white shirt after reportedly getting wet.
Both will be returning home virtually empty-handed. Imee will be paid for the three days that she had worked before missing, while Aleli will not receive anything.
As the police said after both were found last night, the two were in good health.
MWO officers who took them to a shelter and gave them immediate counseling said the two had told them that they got lost in the forest in Tsuen Wan.
โNaligo lang daw po sila sa ilog at ang kinain nila ay bunga ng baging,โ โ said one MWO officer assisting them. (They swam in the river and survived on fruits of overhanging vines).
At least one netizen said in a Facebook post that she saw the two at the Fu Yang Shang barbecue site, about 1 km away from the Tsuen Wan MTR station. Another unconfirmed report said they were spotted at the Lei Muk Shue Shopping Center nearby.
Hiking posts online say the walk from Lei Muk Shue to Shatin called the โNeedle Hill Hikeโ is a scenic but challenging one, bypassing a part of the rugged Maclehose Trail. The distance totals about 8 km and could be covered by seasoned hikers for three hours, but not by inexperienced ones who could get easily lost in the trail.
Imee and Aleli claim they could not use their mobile phones when they realized they got lost because one got wet in the water, while the otherโs battery drained as they used it as a flashlight.
โSinabi nila hindi daw sila nakababa ng bundok hanggang kagabi,โ said the MWO officer (They said they managed to get off the mountains only last night).
When asked about the reported sighting of them in Lei Muk Shue a day earlier, they said they they would have welcomed getting away from the mountains as they experienced extreme difficulty there.
โNasabi nila na akala nila hindi na sila makakalabas ng bundok.โ (They also said they thought they would never be able to get off the mountain).
When fetched at the police station, the two reportedly had three pomelos with them, and said they plucked them from a tree in the mountains.
MWO said the two declined to be interviewed, saying they are not ready, but agreed to share their story to the officers assisting them.
