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Online petition for 'Sentosa' nurses launched


After the successful online petition over what was perceived as a "racial slur" in the Sept. 30 episode of Desperate Housewives, supporters of a group of Filipino nurses facing criminal charges in New York are attempting to replicate the effort by putting up an online signature campaign seeking justice for the nurses. Berna Ellorin posted the petition which has so far garnered 2, 180 signatures as of 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 31. It condemns the "grave injustice" done on the 27 Filipino nurses who stepped out and eventually resigned from the Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center. Eleven of them have been accused of conspiracy and endangering the welfare of children in a pediatric ventilator unit after leaving their posts in April last year due to labor row. "We sign this petition in unity with the Sentosa 27 and the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, who are undergoing a community campaign against the Sentosa Care LLC, the Sentosa Recruitment Agency in Manila, and its owner and chief operating officer Bent Philipson," part of the petition read. Maita Santiago, secretary general for Migrante International, said the online petition is part of a campaign to help the so-called Sentosa nurses in New York who have become victims of “baseless and politically motivated charges." “Ten Filipino nurses including medical board top placer Elmer Jacinto and their lawyer, Felix Vinluan, known as the Avalon 11, are being criminally charged by the Suffolk County District Attorney's office with patient endangerment. This is a baseless and politically motivated charge. The real criminals in this case are Sentosa and its owners," Santiago said. She said the militant migrants group fully supports the struggle for justice for the Avalon 11. The Avalon 11 are among the nurses known collectively as the Sentosa 27, composed of nurses recruited by the US-based Sentosa agency from the Philippines. Santiago said her group will intensify its campaign for a congressional inquiry on the plight of the Sentosa nurses when the Philippine Congress resumes its regular sessions on Nov. 5. Rico Foz, executive vice president of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFC), said that if there is someone that should be held accountable, it should not be the Filipino nurses but the owner of Sentosa Care LLC, Bent Philipson, because of its illegal recruitment activities. NAFC, is a national alliance of Filipino-American organizations spanning 23 cities across the United States. It is the second largest immigrant community in US. “These charges are trumped up and politically-motivated by Sentosa and Philipson in retaliation to the 11 nurses standing up for their rights after working under gravely violated contracts for months, Foz said. “The nurses have documented proof that they did not abandon their work shifts midway. They each finished their shifts completely and made sure there were nurses to take over. This does not constitute patient abandonment or endangerment," Foz said. According to Foz, Sentosa Care and Philipson were the ones guilty of endangering patients by understaffing their nursing facilities and withheld payment of the nurses’ salaries. The patient-to-nurse ratio in Avalon Gardens reached as high as 60:1, Foz cited. “Under these dangerous conditions, the child patients of Avalon Gardens are in more peak danger than if the nurses had actually walked out mid-shift," he said. The group further demanded for a full investigation of Sentosa's criminal operations in New York. Last March, the Suffolk County District Attorney indicted the 11 Filipino nurses for allegedly endangering the lives of their patients. The decision of the US Department of Justice - Office of the Special Counsel dismissing the discrimination charges filed by the nurses also lead to the dismissal of several cases filed before the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) where the nurses charged Sentosa Care of illegal recruitment, misrepresentation and contract substitution. POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz, in a 30-page ruling signed in September, asserted that in the case “no regulation on overseas employment was violated by the respondents in the recruitment and deployment of the complainants to its principal in the United States." The case was dismissed for “utter lack of merit." - Marie Neri, GMANews.TV

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