|
By Rene Q. Bas, Editor in Chief
The Sentosa 27 whose plight was publicized in
The Sunday Times special report “Sentosa 27++ down but not out”
on Sunday is only a handful of the 1,000 Filipinos sent to the US by
RP-based Sentosa Recruitment Agency.
“How can 1,000 other Filipino nurses be wrong
and only 27 of them be right?” the group’s spokesman and legal
counsel asked The Times.
On April 6 and 7, 2006, a controversy in New
York blew up when the 27 Filipino nurses resigned en masse. Sentosa
legal counsel and spokesman in the Philippines Ibaro Relamida Jr.
said they “abandoned their jobs” in the various health-care
facilities of the Sentosa Group.
Relamida said the executives of Sentosa Group
had been surprised by the acts of the 27 nurses (actually, one of
them is a therapist) since April 4, 2006—or two days before they
resigned. The management had meetings with the Filipino employees.
No one raised any issue or concerns that the 27 later alleged
against the Sentosa Group.
The group’s head, Bent Philipson, in denying
the Sentosa 27’s claims said at the time, “We strongly deny any
wrongdoing or misrepresentation as has been described. All contracts
and documents submitted by these nurses at the US Embassy in Manila
prior to the issuance of their immigrant visas were fully explained
to them by the foreign employers. Rather, the 26 nurses and one
physical therapist resigned without any notice to their employers
and in violation of the law and their written employment
agreements.”
He added, “It is unfortunate, but it appears
that this is a group of individuals who have been misled and
ill-advised by others who would take advantage of them with a
promise that they will earn millions of dollars in filing cases in
the US and also making malicious and unfounded complaints with
various Philippine agencies in order to harass and destroy the
credibility of the various Sentosa homecare facilities in New
York.”
The US District Attorney saw this incident as an
“organized activity of the Sentosa 27++ and their lawyer Felix
Vinluan,” Relamida told The Times. “As a result, the nurses and
their lawyer were indicted because they put to risk the lives of
pediatric and frail elderly patients. In our view, this is a
criminal offense punishable by law.”
Later, understanding that they were misled, some
nurses have retracted and apologized for their action, Relamide
said.
“Others, however, breached their contracts,
violated the law and put vulnerable patients at risk by abruptly
resigning,” he added.
Relamide said the Sentosa 27++ and their
lawyers, “in an unprecedented exercise of legal forum shopping
filed various cases against Sentosa Group and their Sentosa
Recruitment Agency in the United States and in the Philippines.”
The cases and their status as of today are:
1. The first case was brought by the Sentosa 27
to US Department of Justice for alleged discrimination. After both
parties submitted their documents, American officials dismissed the
case in August 2007.
2. At the Philippine Overseas Employment
Administration (POEA), the Sentosa 27 filed a case to have
SentosaCare LLC and Sentosa Recruitment Agency suspended for alleged
violation of rules and regulations. A preventive suspension order
was issued on May 25, 2006. Sentosa was not ordered to show why it
should not be suspended. Sentosa filed a motion to lift the POEA’s
preventive suspension order on May 26, 2006. The order was lifted on
June 8, 2006, after Sentosa filed its verified answer together with
various documents—including pay slips—to refute the charges. In
lifting the order, the POEA recognized the fact that as US immigrant
visa holders, the complaining nurses’ rights are amply protected
by the host government from whom immediate redress can be secured.
POEA dismissed the case in September 2007.
3. The Philippine National Labor Relations
Commission dismissed the various cases filed by the nurses against
Sentosa for alleged illegal dismissal and various non-payment
claims. Seeing all the documents from both parties, the labor
commission dismissed the case in February 2008.
4. At the Department of Justice, the charges the
nurses filed against Sentosa for alleged illegal recruitment were
dismissed in January after submission of counter-affidavits from
Sentosa.
Relamida said all the cases against the Sentosa
Group were dismissed on the basis of strong evidence.
He showed The Times a letter sent by Filipinos
employed by the Sentosa Group to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel after he
delivered a privileged speech supporting the Sentosa 27 and
attacking the Sentosa Group in September 2006.
The letter was sent to Pimentel by his
“constituents from Cagayan de Oro City” and Relamida’s “own
provincemates from Ilocos Norte who are happily working with various
facilities of SentosaCare LLC here in New York.”
The nurses said they were “all saddened by
your privileged speech at the Philippine Senate last September 4,
2006, wherein you attacked [former] Presidential Chief of Staff
Michael Defensor and in the process crucified SentosaCare LLC and
its local counterpart Sentosa Recruitment Agency without the benefit
of looking into the root cause of the present controversy.”
The nurses protested Senator Pimentel’s
speech, having presented as “gospel truth the unsubstantiated
claim made by the group of Elmer Jacinto, whom you now painted as a
hero among Filipino Nurses working abroad. On the contrary, Elmer
Jacinto and his group is the new breed of Filipino Nurses who want
to get higher salaries without even proving their worth as true and
well-respected Filipino Nurses. In reality, it was Jacinto and his
group who turned their backs on their contracts in their desire to
join other medical institutions.”
The letter writers said they are “living
proof” that Sentosa takes “good care of us in the same manner
that we showed to Sentosa that we are the real Filipino nurses who
are not only professional medical workers, but also devoted to
protect and safeguard the welfare of American patients.”
They call Jacinto and his allied nurses
“renegades” who “instantaneously abandoned their posts in
various facilities” and “endangered the lives of the frail
elderly and pediatric patients who were entrusted to their care.”
They had other unflattering things to say about
Jacinto and the rest of the 27 who they said “were after higher
pay without taking into consideration the manpower, time and
financial resources that Sentosa invested to bring them in to New
York.”
“Our present position with various Sentosa
facilities only shows that if you work hard you will surely
experience a good life and secured future—the so-called American
Dream. With all these controversy, we hope that you can visit us
here in New York and see for yourself our finest condition while
working with Sentosa,” the nurses who wrote Pimentel said to end
their letter.
Sentosa Recruitment Agency was the first agency
in the Philippines to introduce the practice of not charging any
placement fee. Sentosa also provides employment opportunities for
spouses of nurses it recruits.
Relamida said the Sentosa Group’s foreign
employers or principals assist applicants in all aspects of gaining
permanent resident status, obtaining Social Security numbers and
limited permits. Sentosa even provides free airfare from Manila to
New York as well as temporary housing.
“Sentosa is extremely proud of its ability to
assist health-care agencies during this difficult time of shortages
in the nursing profession,” said Francris Luyun, chief executive
officer of Sentosa Recruitment Agency in the Philippines.
“Countless nurses have enjoyed and benefited from their
experience, with many going on to see great advances in their
careers.”
He said today 25 percent of the Sentosa
Group’s nursing directors, the highest position for a nurse in the
group’s facilities, are Filipino immigrants with salary of
$160,000 per annum.
|
