Consulate says seven Filipinos per day need legal assistance

A woman looks at a board listing available jobs during a job fair in Manila
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The Consulate General of the Philippines has revealed that they are contacted by an average of seven Filipino residents in Macau asking for legal assistance every day.
At a seminar held last week, representatives from the Consulate General of the Philippines  informed Filipinos residing in Macau of their rights, and offered assistance to those who are currently suffering from issues such as physical abuse or mental health problems. The consul-general, Lilybeth Deapera, added that the consulate also provided free legal advice during the seminar.
Ms Deapera said: “The purpose of this event is to provide our compatriots with free legal assistance in a number of areas [including] family relations, [the prevention of] illegal trafficking, questions about their property back home [in the Philippines] and all other areas that they might want to discuss with us.”
According to a TDM report, lawyer Joseph Inocencio was invited by the consulate to assist in running the seminar. Mr Inocencio said that the majority of cases are related to violence against Filipino women residing in Macau. He added that he had given 20 one-on-one legal consultations prior to last week’s event.
“Earlier today we had, I think, more or less 20 guests who had legal problems and then most of them [were] concerned with our laws regarding the abuse of women. [These covered] all forms of harassment such as physical, psychological, emotional – even economic abuses,” Innocenio told TDM.
The consulate also invited guests from several Macau governmental departments to deliver keynote speeches aimed at helping Filipinos better adjust to living in the city. A similar seminar is being organized for November 25 at the Consulate General of the Philippines.
Macau is currently home to thousands of overseas workers, many of them from the Philippines. According to the government’s 2011 census, around 2.7 percent of the MSAR’s population is of Filipino descent.