LACSON BATS FOR LEGAL ASSISTANCE FOR 'SENTOSA' NURSES

Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson today took the cudgels for the 27 Filipino medical practitioners facing a legal battle against their recruiter in New York, extracting a commitment from the Department of Justice to assist the foreign workers in their legal plight.

During the first hearing on the predicament of the so-called Sentosa 27 - comprised of 26 nurses and a physical therapist recruited to work in the US by Sentosa Services - before the Senate labor committee, Lacson asked Justice assistant secretary Teresita Domingo if the agency could extend legal assistance to the nurses through the Department of Foreign Affairs or Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. Domingo readily obliged citing particular provisions of the Migrant Workers' Act.

Lacson said help from the government is very crucial at this point after hearing the testimonies of some of the nurses' parents who claimed that the nurses are now facing under and unemployment in addition to facing administrative and criminal charges in the US.

He enjoined the other government agencies concerned such as the DFA and POEA to go beyond lip service in showing the value it places on overseas Filipino workers.

"We are the government, they are our citizens. Now that they clearly need help, we must take it upon ourselves to really help out. We always mention that OFWs are instrumental to our economic growth. Even if it's just one or two or three victims, we must not take the risk of adding the number of victims," he said.

Lacson said the help becomes more urgent as the nurses face another hearing of their case on Dec. 17.

The nurses are locked in a legal battle with Sentosa Services, which sent them to New York but had them work for jobs and receive salaries much lower than those stipulated in their original contracts.

For more than a year, he noted the nurses have had to battle harassment in the form of a counter-complaint from Sentosa and various attempts to quash their own complaint.