Assist RP nurses facing trial in NY, Pimentel urges Malacañang

Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr urged the government to extend legal assistance to the 10 Filipino nurses belonging to the ‘Sentosa 27’ who face criminal and civil charges for resigning en masse to protest unjust working conditions and labor malpractices in a New York health care center.

Pimentel said in a statement on Tuesday that he was told the trial for the criminal complaint against the nurses has been reset from Jan. 28 to April in a New York district court. The civil aspect of the suit will be tried separately.

The 10 were part of a group of 26 Filipino nurses and a physical therapist (Sentosa 27) who claimed that their local recruiter, Sentosa Recruitment Agency (SRA), was guilty of violating human trafficking laws, and involuntary servitude.

If the Filipino nurses would be convicted, they could face a year in jail on each of 13 counts, lose their nursing licenses and be deported, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Following their walkout from the pediatric ventilation unit of Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in April 2006, the Sentosa's New York agency slapped them with criminal charges for allegedly endangering the lives of the terminally ill children they were looking after.

Meanwhile, the New York health department came out with its findings in an inquiry last month that residents of the nursing home “were not placed in jeopardy" when the health workers quit their jobs.

Facing trial are Elmer Jacinto, Juliet Anilao, Harriet Avila, Mark dela Cruz, Claudine Gamiao, Jennifer Lampa, Rizza Maulion, James Millena, Ma. Theresa Ramos, and Ranier Sichon, and their lawyer Felix Vinluan.

They were indicted on March 22, 2007 even after the state's education department cleared them in September 2006 of any wrongdoing.

Jacinto is a 2004 medical board topnotcher who had switched to nursing.

The recruitment license of the Filipino nurses with Sentosa was earlier suspended after the Sentosa 27 filed a formal complaint with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

"I think that we owe it to our compatriots in New York who are placed in that situation to assist them in whatever way," said Pimentel in a speech before the Senate.

Following Pimentel's speech, the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources and the committee of foreign relations conducted public hearings on the plight of the nurses.

Last month, Anthony Golez, deputy presidential spokesman, said that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs to provide the nurses with legal assistance “in order for them to afford good lawyers during the critical time of trial." - Mark J. Ubalde, GMANews.TV

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