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By Nora O. Gamolo, Senior Desk
Editor
SOMEONE can write and produce a
telenovela hit based on the Sentosa 27+ + case.
It has all the elements that
audiences around the globe like—dreams of success in the land of
milk and honey, ambition, broken promises that cause personal and
professional disappointments, suspense and the courtroom
dramas—especially that now ten of the nurses and their lawyer are
facing criminal cases filed by the Sentosa Group or its subsidiary,
Avalon. [Editor’s note: See related story “Nurses and their
lawyer face fearsome attorney general, a criminal case.”]
One of the nurses is the
topnotcher in the Philippine medical board exam. Each of the
27 is the hero or heroine of a drama that has made their siblings,
parents and children weep and suffer with them.
There is power politics too. US
Democratic Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Ted Kennedy of
Massachusetts are involved [Editor’s note: See related story
“Sentosa Group wields power not just in the US but also in the
Philippines.”
The case has come to involve
angry Philippine senators too, and a New York state prosecutor, the
former head of the Presidential Management Staff in the Philippines,
Filipino labor department officials and, who knows?, even the
president of the Philippines herself.
Certainly, there are a lot of
extras. On both sides of the globe, you have families, professional
and community groups and legislators supporting these protagonists,
rooting for the day when the nurses and their families can celebrate
some victory after getting nothing but defeats so far.
No other labor migrants’ issue
has caught the attention of local and foreign stakeholders more than
this modern jeremiad of migrant labor’s pains and oppression.
Sentosa 27++ refers to 26 nurses
and one physical therapist all recruited from the Philippines
through the Philippine-based Sentosa Recruitment Agency (SRA), owned
by Francis Luyun.
Note the two plus signs after the
word and symbol “Sentoza 27.” All those interviewed said these
refer to the emergence of other nurses who may find themselves in
circumstances similar to what these beleaguered nurses are in.
The nurses were sponsored as
immigrant workers in the United States, the target destination of
many a Filipino nurse, and arrived there in several batches in 2004
and 2005. They later resigned en masse.
They now face very serious legal
cases that threaten their practice and stay in the US, and their
personal and professional reputations.
Among these nurses is Elmer
Jacinto, a medical board topnotcher who opted to study to become a
nurse, and left for the US as one. About six of the Sentosa
nurses were actually doctors before they became nurses, according to
Ibaro Relamida, SRA lawyer.
In the United States, Luyun also
worked as director of international recruitment for the New
York-based Sentosa Care, LLC, owned by Bent Philipson. Sentosa
Care has controlling interest or owns about 27 other health care
facilities in the US.
Sentosa made several commitments
to them: competitive salary ranging from $21 to$35 per hour; medical
coverage; relocation and housing allowances; free malpractice
insurance; free airfare from Manila to New York; reimbursement of
processing certification and licensure fees; generous shift
differentials; flexible eight and 12-hour schedules; and
comprehensive training.
Each signed individual employment
contracts with the particular nursing home facility that sponsored
them: Avalon Gardens, Woodmere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center;
Brookhaven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; Garden Care Center;
New Surfside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; Split Rock Nursing
and Rehabilitation Center; Bayview Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center; Franklin Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; Golden Gate
Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; and Townhouse Nursing and
Rehabilitation Center.
Upon their arrival in New York in
different batches, most of the Sentoza 27++ were surprised to find
themselves at nursing home facilities different from the ones that
sponsored them. All of them discovered they were made agency
employees of Prompt Nursing Employment Agency doing business as
Sentosa Services.
The nurses questioned why they
were not working directly for their petitioning employers. Some
complained that there were not reimbursed for licensure expresses.
tion expenses, or even the plane
fare from Manila to New York that Sentosa promised to reimburse as
soon as they arrived in New York.
Some nurses also charged that
they were not paid for actual work hours rendered, and were even
underpaid their hourly rates. They also complained about the lack of
proper and complete orientation of training and the disproportionate
nurse-patient ration that they felt would compromise the patient’s
care and safety.
On April 6, 2006, the nurses’
lawyer Felix Vinluan of the New York-based Vinluan Law Office lodged
28 discrimination charges against Bent Philipson and his group of
companies before the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration
Related Unfair Employment Practices under the Department of Justice
in Washington, DC. Later, the nurses submitted their resignation
letters to Sentosa, Philipson and the nursing facilities they were
assigned at.
Philipson allegedly retaliated
against the Sentosa 27++ by filing a breach of contract case against
them, and even impleaded Atty. Vinluan as party defendant for
alleged tortuous interference of contracts.
The New York Supreme Court
justice hearing the breach of contract case denied on July 5, 2006
Sentosa’s application for preliminary injunction as Sentosa failed
to establish “their likelihood of prevailing on the merits of the
breach of contract claim.”
Philipson and his group of
companies also filed administrative cases against the nurses before
the New York State Education Department’s Office of Professional
Discipline ((NYSED-OPD), alleging that the nurses abandoned their
patients when they resigned. After a couple of administrative
hearings, the NYSED-OPD closed the administrative case on September
13, 2006. Declaring that the nurses did not abandon their patients,
the agency stated that “all the cases have been closed, and this
Department will take no action against any of the licensed nurses
accused of abandoning patients.”
In addition, the agency said
“we will not institute any moral character proceeding against any
of the non-licensees who are seeking a permit or license.”
The nurses, through counsel
Vinluan, also filed some time in April 2006 administrative cases
against the Philippine-based SRA for violation of Philippine
recruitment rules and regulations before the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration (POEA). POEA Administrator Rosalinda
Baldoz signed a preventive suspension against Sentosa Recruitment
Agency on May 24, 2006 to prevent further “exploitation,” the
order said.
But, mystery of mysteries,
Administrator Baldoz lifted the suspension before two weeks were
over. Supporters of the Sentosa 27++ have of course seen
political pressure being applied on her.
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