Pimentel urges govt to help convicted Filipino nurses in New York

A senator urged the Philippine government to do everything to get a New York court to reverse the conviction of 11 of the Sentosa 27 nurses charged with abandonment of their duties and endangering the lives of their patients by the Sentosa Recruitment Agency (SRA).

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. asked the Philippine government to extend assistance to these nurses who include 2004 medical board exam topnotcher Elmer Jacinto.

Jacinto and his companions had complained that they were not given the salary rates and benefits stipulated under their employment contracts when they were assigned to hospitals in New York in 2006.

When they sued their recruitment agency, Sentosa Recruitment Agency, for breach of employment contract upon advice of their lawyer, the recruitment firm filed a counter-charge against them.

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

He said the distressed nurses should be assisted by the government by way of legal services so that their conviction will be reversed by the New York court.

"The conviction of course discourages a lot of our people and also places our nurses in a bad light," Pimentel said.

The committee on labor, employment and human resources and the committee on foreign relations have been directed by the Senate leadership to look into the plight of the nurses.

When the nurses first complained about the non-compliance of Sentosa with the terms of their job contracts in 2006, Pimentel delivered a privilege speech in which he urged Malacañang and the Department of Labor and Employment to attend to their problem.

In his privilege speech, Pimentel criticized a Malacañang and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for being remiss in their duties to protect the welfare of the Filipino nurses. He said a Malacañang official even tried to intercede in the case upon the representation of US Senator Charles Schumer who was trying to pressure the government into lifting the preventive suspension imposed on Sentosa on account of the complaint of nurses.-ABS-CBN News

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