Christmas and New Year are two of the most important holidays celebrated by all Filipinos. Because it is centering on being with your family, most Overseas Filipino Workers come home on the holidays to be with their families.

Unfortunate Situations

Because of their will to be with their families, a lot of OFWs from Hong Kong immediately purchase roundtrip tickets to go home this Christmas. However, the tickets they purchased were deemed invalid. This affected hundreds of OFWs.

Luckily, the government, along with Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, and Cathay Pacific, joined forces to bring home the affected OFWs. They were able to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones.

Now, all is left is: where is the culprit?

The Arrest

The company behind the alleged scamming, PEYA Travel Agency, is a Filipino-owned travel agency operating in Hong Kong.

The managing director of the said travel agency, Rhea Donna Bayona Boyce or known as “Yanyan” to the Filipino community in Hong Kong, was already arrested by the police. The owner of PEYA Travel was taken to the PEYA Office in World-Wide Building in Central to confiscate relevant documents for the case.

Other than the incident involving the OFWs, there were also reports from foreign women reporting that they purchased tickets from PEYA Travel Agency in Des Voeux Road Central and discovered that the tickets lapsed.

According to the Hong Kong Police, there were as many as 645 victims and involved about HK$2 million.

Another victim, a 67-year-old local reported that they purchased tickets from the agency for their company but did not receive the flight ticket fee since May totaling to about HK$3 million.

The owner of PEYA Travel assured the affected OFWs that they will receive the refund for the tickets they purchased.

Hopefully, this will be resolved peacefully and the OFWs will get the right amount that they paid.