MANILA, 22 November 2007 — Support has started pouring in for the 38 Filipino nurses in New York who are locked in a legal battle with SentosaCare, an American-based company that recruited them.
The latest came from the Philippine Nurses’Association (PNA), which has expressed support for an online petition meant to boost the morale of the distressed health workers.
“The outpouring of support for our campaign has been overwhelming and keeps growing nationwide and worldwide. It is clearly a deep issue not only the Filipino community can keep silent about,” said Alipio Esguerra, a former Sentosa nurse who signed the petition together with his children.
On Oct. 30, the Philippine consul general in New York, Cecilia Rebong, handed over a $25,000 assistance in support of the nurses’ litigation against the company.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila said the money in addition to the legal assistance funds the department had released to 10 of the nurses who had been criminally charged for alleged endangerment of patients.
The health professionals, known originally as Sentosa 27++, are involved in various administrative, criminal, and civil cases after they allegedly abandoned patients in protest over alleged labor law violations by their employer.
The number has since increased to 38 as more nurses have come forward with their complaints.
The Sentosa 27++ Legal Defense Trust was set up to pursue the group’s legal remedies.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the DFA to provide full support for the workers after learning of their plight.
The nurses gained recognition for speaking out against their plight of illegal recruitment by the Sentosa Recruitment Agency in Manila last year. After suffering from false contracts, abuse, and withholding of wages, the nurses individually resigned from their posts.
Sentosa, and its owner, Bent Philipson, retaliated by filing civil and criminal charges for patient abandonment and endangerment, despite claims by the nurses that they did not walk out on their patients or threaten their security.
After hiring a lawyer, the Filipino nurses came forward with their stories after initial legal paths to justice were allegedly obstructed by political interference by officials in New York and the Philippines.
Even the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has dismissed the workers’ case of illegal recruitment against Sentosa.
Sentosa 27++ had accused former presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor of interceding with the POEA in behalf of their employer.
Among the demands of the campaign are the immediate dropping of all criminal and civil charges against the nurses, immediate compensation of all backwages, and an investigation into Sentosa’s alleged violations of the laws against human trafficking and involuntary servitude.
