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The Filipino community is rallying behind nurses facing legal
charges for alleged endangerment of their patients in New York,
called the Sentosa 27++.
Among others, they created the broad and
community-based Justice for the Sentosa 27++ to spearhead the
campaign.
Among their little victories was securing a one
million peso fund from President Gloria Arroyo as legal assistance
for the nurses.
Sentosa 27++ supporters were present during the
hearing on December 17.
Support contingents came from the National
Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), the Philippine Nurses
Association, Consul General Cecilia Rebong and her staff, as well as
Region 1 of the National Federation of Filipino-American
Associations (NaFFAA).
A week before the hearing, Sentosa 27 support
groups held a public forum at the Philippine Consulate in Manhattan,
with the beleaguered nurses themselves in attendance.
The gathering was intended to clarify
outstanding questions on the campaign and re-orient the community on
the basic facts of the Sentosa 27++ case.
After a brief opening by Consul Rebong, NAFCON
spokesperson Rico Foz and Sentosa 27++ nurse Elmer Jacinto took to
the podium to deliver an orientation on the Justice for the Sentosa
27++ campaign and present the basic facts of the case.
Foz acknowledged the leadership role of NAFCON,
answering to the nurses plea for help and forming a campaign
framework that has already garnered small victories, including a
Philippine Senate hearing and lower House hearing to investigate the
alleged illegal recruitment case against the Sentosa Recruitment
Agency (SRA).
“We came on board at a time no one was
answering to the nurses’ case,” Foz stated, also calling on
members of the campaign’s steering committee to stand up in the
audience.
Foz and Jacinto were followed by Felix Vinluan,
the attorney who advised the Sentosa 27++ to resign and eventually
filed discrimination cases for the nurses with the US Department of
Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Special Counsel (OSC).
Sentosa later filed criminal charges against 10
of the nurses for alleged patient abandonment, while also filing
charges against Vinluan for so-called tortious interference.
Vinluan, on the other hand, cited “political
interference” by then Secretary Mike Defensor that he alleged to
have led to the lifting of the suspension order placed against SRA
by Philippine Overseas Employment Agency Administrator Rosalinda
Baldoz.
He also cited Defensor at having called up
Rebong shortly afterwards. When questioned in the open forum, Rebong
denied knowing of SentosaCare LLC owner Bent Philipson’s alleged
political connect-ions to Defensor and US Senator Charles Schumer.
Still on the defensive, Rebong was also
questioned on the supposed one million pesos legal fund
promised to the nurses by by President Arroyo, since only P100,000
had been received by the nurses.
“The claim of P1,000,000 is a mistake. We do
not know how that amount was declared,” stated Rebong and Vice
Consul Leandro Lachica.
Rebong and Lachica were later openly refuted
by Foz, who insisted the amount was taken directly from a transcript
of a testimony from a representative of the Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) during the recent Philippine Senate hearing, to which
Defensor, Baldoz, and SRA owner Francis Luyun did not show up.
A successful picket of the SRA office at the
Ortigas Center was also launched by the nurses’ families in
Manila.
The session concluded with a call to action to
support the nurses, including the call to pressure New York State
Governor Elliott Spitzer to appoint a Special Prosecutor to ensure a
fair and objective trial for the nurses, and a call to mobilize the
Filipino community to support the 10 nurses criminally charged with
patient abandonment and Vinluan, also known as the Avalon 11.
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