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Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Opposition lawmaker hits Palace exec for ‘coddling’ erring recruiter
SENATE Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. on Monday accused Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor of intervening in the illegal recruitment case of a recruitment agency that paved the way for the questionable lifting of the preventive suspension order issued against the firm.
In a privilege speech, Pimentel said Defensor allegedly had a hand in absolving the Manila-based Sentosa Recruitment Agency of a case filed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) two weeks after the preventive suspension order was issued.
Pimentel said the move brought to naught the complaint of 28 Filipino nurses in New York, including Elmer Jacinto, the 2004 Medical Board Examination topnotcher, who were denied the salary rate and benefits they agreed upon with Sentosa.
“Unknown to the nurses, the secretary pulled strings to put a none-too-subtle pressure on our officials from the POEA in Manila and the consulate in New York apparently to make the complaining nurses back off for their case,” Pimentel said.
When the nurses were recruited, Sentosa promised that they will be receiving US$21 to US$35 an hour, medical coverage, relocation and housing allowances, free malpractice insurance, free airfare from Manila to New York, reimbursement of processing certification and licensure fees, generous shift differentials and flexible, 12-hour schedule and comprehensive training.
Upon arrival in New York, they however did not only get what was promised to them but Sentosa turned them over to the Sentosa Bent Philipson, a New York-based agency that appears to have a different legal personality from Sentosa in Manila.
Pimentel said the 28 Filipino nurses were then passed on to the Sentosa Care, LLC, said to be a healthcare management company, and finally on the Prompt Nursing Employment Agency/Sentosa Services, which is now the actual employer of the nurses.
A check with the POEA shows that Prompt Nursing Employment Agency/Sentosa Services is not registered as a principal of Sentosa Recruitment Agency based in Manila.
Pimentel said the 28 nurses filed a case against Sentosa with the POEA, but the case was dismissed when Defensor called up POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz, who was then with Director Alejandro Padaen of the POEA Adjudication Branch on June 6, 2006.
Consul General Cecilia Rebong of the Philippine Consulate in New York also received a call from Defensor last June 7 regarding the complaint of the Filipino nurses, Pimentel added.
He sought a Senate investigation on the alleged intervention of Defensor.
At Malacañang, Defensor admitted that he talked to Baldoz over her office’s decision to suspend a recruitment agency facilitating the travel and work of Filipino Nurses in the New York.
But Defensor denied that he personally know anyone from Sentosa Care LLC, or its recruiting arm, Sentosa Recruitment Agency, nor did he ask the POEA to lift the suspension.
He said he merely inquired about the case after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo received a letter from New York Senator Charles Schumer dated June 27, 2006 inquiring about the case.
Defensor said it is was then when he asked to be updated on the Sentosa case that he learned that POEA suspended the agency’s operations based on the case filed by 30 Filipino nurses in New York. He said there was no existing case against the recruitment agency in the country.
Defensor said he would understand if the POEA tells him that they have suspended the recruitment agency for two to three days to verify possible complaints pending in the country but a suspension of “two to three weeks without basis” is wrong.
He said if POEA lifted its suspension following his talk with Baldoz, he does not know but all he knows is that it had also benefited 26 Filipino nurses who were supposed to fly and work in New York at the time of the suspension. They were only able to fly out after the suspension was lifted.
Defensor said aside from POEA, he also met with New York-based officials of Sentosa led by Ben Philipson, chief financial officer; Ben Landa, chief operating officer; and their lawyer Howard Fensterman last July 12 who informed him that they have a total of 300 Filipino nurses working with them.
Of the 300, only 30 have filed a complaint and the remaining 270 are still “happily working” with them. He said one of the Filipino nurses, whose name he forgot, was also present and informed him that they were enjoying good benefits and treatment and their only concern is the suspension’s possible effects on their future employment.
Defensor said during his talks with the Sentosa officials, he assured the complaining Filipinos could still return to work should they decide to settle and return.
Reports said at least three of the 30 are already planning to return to Sentosa after their initial action to leave their patients behind, which constitutes breach of contract. The Filipino nurses were reportedly planning to quit their job to transfer to another agency, which offers a higher pay and more benefits.
Defensor said he is wiling to face any inquiry should the Senate call for one following the privilege speech of Pimentel. He said he would personally ask the President to allow him to attend the hearings should he receive an invitation. (REC/JMR/Sunnex)
(September 5, 2006 issue)
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