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Vote Sentosa 27 as Balitang Amerika's Newsmaker of the Year!

Dear Friends and Supporters:

Please place your vote NOW for the Sentosa 27 nurses as Balitang Amerika's Newsmaker of the Year. Please see the link below for info how to vote.

As you all know, NAFCON has worked hard to build the Sentosa 27 campaign and keep the Sentosa 27 in the news. As the nurses struggles continue with the Avalon 11 facing their criminal hearing on Dec 17th, we in the community must keep up the support and heighten the media profile of the case.

For all of us in the worldwide immigrant community, this case represents all of us!!!!

for the OFW,
Berna Ellorin


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Voting until Nov 30, Newsmaker of the year will be announced on Dec 30, 2007.
check the link below.

http://www.abs-cbni.com/index.html


To Vote by text
Type: my newsmaker (space) name of choice and send to 650-766-1557

To vote by E-mail
Email balitangamerica@abs-cbni.com and type the name of your choice

Statements on Batasan Bombing

Press Statement
November 14, 2007

Statement of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) on the Batasan Bombing

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan condemns in no uncertain terms the bombing of the Batasang Pambansa which resulted in the death of Comrade Marcial Taldo and the injury of Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela Women's Party. The explosion also claimed the lives of Rep. Wahab Akbar of Basilan and Maan Bustalino.

The bombing happens at a time when intense political crisis is besieging the Arroyo administration. The incident happened hours before a Senate probe on bribery allegations involving Malacañang as well as Congress hearings on the impeachment case against the President.

We call for an impartial and thorough probe on the incident even as we cry out for justice for the victims. We do not want the investigation to turn into another Glorietta probe wherein the results lack credibility. There should be no cover up. Even as the Philippine National Police (PNP) is popularizing the theory that Rep. Akbar was the target of the blast, it should not immediately and conveniently disregard other political angles that may be the reasons for the blast.

The PNP has the duty to determine whether or not the blast was also aimed at Rep. Luz Ilagan who is a known Arroyo critic, or if the blast was some form of diversionary tactic to cover up the impeachment issue and the Senate bribery probe happening today. All angles, even the highly political, must be looked into for the probe to be credible and acceptable to the public. To immediately limit the probe to the Akbar angle would only fuel public suspicion.

The recent series of explosions that have occurred in Makati City, Quezon City and nearby Cavite province are a cause for alarm insofar as these may be used by the Arroyo government as a justification for more repressive policies. We warn the Arroyo government that doing a Musharraf will be politically costly and will incite further resistance from the people. Whether it is through the draconian Human Security Act or a state of emergency, repressive measures are a totally unacceptable response to these incidents. These only betray the regime's self-serving drive to remain in power at whatever cost.

If the intention of the blast was to sow fear especially among critics of the administration, we can say with certainty that we will not be cowed. We will continue to fight for issues that we firmly believe in. We will continue to hold the Arroyo regime accountable for the many crimes it has committed against the people. ###




STATEMENT OF CONDEMNATION OF THE BOMBING AT THE PHILIPPINE CONGRESS

By the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON)
For Reference: Rico Foz, Executive Vice President, email: nafconusa@yahoo.com

In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the latest bombing of the House of Representatives where at least three people – Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar, an employee, and a driver - died, while two other solons were critically wounded along with at least five employees. It is reprehensible that this incident should happen in the premises of Congress and at a time when two impeachment complaints against President Gloria M. Arroyo are pending in the House, while investigation on the latest cases of corruption and bribery involving the President is likewise ongoing in the Senate.

We are concerned that one of the congressmen who was wounded – and possibly targeted for assassination – is a representative of the progressive Gabriela Women's Party (GWP), Mindanao lawyer Luz Ilagan. Her driver, Marcial Tando, died in the bombing of serious injuries. Along with other solons from the progressive group in the House, Ilagan this week moved for the impeachment of Mrs. Arroyo for corruption, human rights abuses, and other culpable violations of the Constitution. In her early stint in Congress, the Mindanao legislator has defended the rights of overseas Filipino migrant workers, including the labor case of the Sentosa 27 nurses in New York.

If we connect the dots, the explosion at the Batasang Pambansa complex (seat of the House) is the latest in a series of bombings and killings, particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR). Prior to this was the bombing of Glorietta at Ayala's financial district, which killed at least 11 persons and injured scores of others; the ambush-slaying of the Comelec's chief legal counsel; the mysterious vehicular accident of opposition leader and former senator, Rene Saguisag, that took the life of his wife, Dulce; the equally mysterious car accident of Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran; and death threats against certain opposition members of the House and Senate, including Speaker Jose de Venecia.

These incidents are taking place amid a renewed clamor by various sectors for the ouster, removal by impeachment, or resignation of Arroyo. The calls were precipitated by public outrage over the latest high-level corruption scandal and bribery involving the President, her husband, some Cabinet members, and political allies. Senate investigations and other accounts are beginning to tie the pieces that link the president to these scandals and briberies – the latest since Arroyo became president in 2001. Moreover, the Arroyo government is being called in the international community including the U.S. Congress to account for 890 victims of politically-motivated extra-judicial killings and other acts of atrocities, making it, after the Marcos regime, the object of worldwide indignation.

The Filipino people cannot but be alarmed by the fact that it is the Arroyo government that is, deliberately or otherwise, creating the conditions for destabilization that began with her alleged stealing of the presidency in 2004, the escalation of political repression and persecution of many outspoken critics, people's organizations, and progressive party-list groups, and last year's declaration of emergency rule along with repressive executive orders, among others.

We note with concern that these incidents could lead to the full implementation of the controversial Human Security Act and could be part of a bigger scenario to declare martial law. If these are the means by which the survival of the Arroyo presidency could be secured, then there is all the more reason for the Filipino-American community in the United States to once again be united and act as one in resisting attempts to sow a reign of terror in the Philippines leading to the declaration of another martial law.

As we have done so against the Marcos dictatorship of the 1970s-1980s, we cannot be cowed into submitting to another authoritarian rule.#

MAKING OUR COMMUNITY OF VOICES INTO A COLLECTIVE DEMAND FOR JUSTICE

Note: The following text is a speech prepared and delivered by NAFCON's legal advisor Atty. Arnedo Valera, who also serves as the Executive Director of the Migrant Heritage Commission, NAFCON's member organization in Virginia. It was delivered last weekend at a National Filipino-American Leaders' Summit in Las Vegas.


Organizers of the Las Vegas Summit



MAKING OUR COMMUNITY OF VOICES INTO A COLLECTIVE DEMAND FOR JUSTICE

By: Arnedo S. Valera, Esquire
Legal Counsel – NAFCON
Executive Director – MIGRANT HERITAGE COMMISSION
Speech delivered: SUMMIT MEETING OF FIL-AM LEADERS 2007
CEASARS PALACE: LAS VEGAS, NEVADA : November 10, 2007

I have decided to rename my title to MAKING OUR COMMUNITY OF VOICES INTO COLLECTIVE DEMAND FOR JUSTICE to be more specific and set out the theme of what I will be talking about today.

Allow me to begin by saying that the issue about the ABC TV episode's "Desperate Housewives" has once again awakened us with one thunderous voice of indignation - proof that Filipinos in the United States have common grounds for unity and action. For weeks following the episode's showing last September, Filipino immigrants and U.S.-born Filipinos many of them professionals like doctors, nurses, and lawyers took to the streets to stage protest pickets, as well as sign online statements, issue news releases, and organize forums. For its part, the NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR FILIPINO CONCERNS (NAFCON), MIGRANT HERITAGE COMMISSION and its affiliate organizations throughout the U.S., took the stand that the short "apology" issued through email by the ABC management was inversely proportional to the racial slur that damaged the integrity and competence of Filipino professionals and institutions and henceforth, the nationwide alliance moved and called for the boycott of all ABC-Disney products unless TV network issued a real apology and adopted concrete measures to ensure that the incident will not happen again.

I believe, likewise, that the ABC racial spat episode should be seen as essentially an immigration issue because of its broader implications on the rights of Filipinos particularly the medical professionals and workers. It disparaged and damaged the career, rights, and future practice of the medical professionals, with an element of racial prejudice because it singled out the Filipinos as a whole. It was entirely farcical for ABC to talk about the unreliability of Filipino medical professionals when their competence and compassionate care for millions of patients not only in the U.S. but in other countries is known all over the world. Lies are lies, and it is legally and morally dangerous to use them as a butt of joke or a satire especially against a nationality.

It is, moreover, unconscionable for the Philippine government to accept ABC's short apology especially because the acceptance was issued contrary to the sentiments of many Filipinos in the U.S. and in the Philippines who were demanding justice and redemption in form and substance proportional to the injustice committed and in the same international and public venue – the TV network – used by the company to inflict the racial slur. This is a government that we know whose economic survival depends on the remittances of overseas Filipinos yet is short of performance when it comes to defending the hardworking Filipinos' rights and ministering to their needs in their countries of destination.

The ABC controversy is just one of many incidents – which are largely unreported – of racial prejudice, racial profiling, wage discrimination, unjust employment terms and conditions, and other acts of injustice that many of our fellow migrants in the U.S. suffer. That is why there is all the more reason for the Filipino-American communities to face up to these threats to our democratic and immigration rights, for these to galvanize us into action, and to be engaged in united though diverse forms of action. For instance, various organizations in the U.S., such as the Philippine Forum, the New York Committee on Human Rights in the Philippines, NAFCON, and the Migrant Heritage Commission have taken the cudgels of the Sentosa 27 nurses who face the threats of criminal convictions and deportation even if they were the ones victimized by illegal recruitment and unjust labor conditions. The deteriorating state of human rights in the Philippines, characterized by the spate of extra-judicial killings that resulted in the death of nearly 890 social activists, human rights volunteers, lawyers, health activists, church leaders, and other victims, from 2001 to the present is another issue that engages these U.S.-based organizations in coordination with human rights organizations and institutions in the Philippines and elsewhere. One other concern that has drawn the outrage of these organizations as well as other groups and communities in the United States is the corruption that continues to infest high officials of the Philippine government. Some of the most recent graft and corruption cases such as the ZTE national broadband scam and the multi-million "brown bag" bribery involving some members of Congress and local government officials have brought us to the realization about how rotten the government has become even as the country's economy has become irremediably stagnant, with the poor becoming poorer and the wealth more and more concentrated in a few families. Cases like these that involve the office of the presidency have made the Philippines the second country in Asia with the highest incidence of corruption. Until now, there are no exact figures how much of the remittances sent to the Philippines by Filipinos abroad in billions of dollars every year is lost to government corruption.

The remittances that overseas Filipinos, including us immigrants in the United States, send to our families and relatives in the Philippines may provide short-term economic relief to them or even as a fallback income for some of us who eventually will spend our retirement in our country of roots. But we know for a fact that the long-term stability and a secure future for our unfortunate brothers and sisters back home can only be ensured under a situation where the people are able to take control of their own economic future and under a government that truly represents the interests and aspirations of its broad constituencies.

It is under these circumstances that I invite you to look again at the current situation of the Philippine society which, I believe, is in a state of transition, where people are beginning to question the wisdom of maintaining a government – not only a President – that is beginning to lose its credibility; where the system of check and balance, as represented by Congress, does not function because the institution is itself plagued by corruption while it only maintains itself virtually as a social club for political dynasties; where the election continues to be just a fraudulent process of recycling the reign of power of the same political dynasties that have been in control of government for generations and decades; and where the dire economic conditions are driving people to leave everyday in their thousands in search of jobs in other countries. We cannot, I believe, insulate ourselves from the unjust rule and social injustice that continue to confront the Filipino people; or turn our backs while millions of our people face poverty or die in the process of advocating for reform.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a growing number of Filipino-American organizations working to lend their voice and support to the daily demands for economic rights and social justice back home, even as they also increasingly are involved in the defense of immigration rights and other issues here in the United States. Sometimes, their issues are inter-linked with the advocacy movements of other ethnic groups, such as in the fight for immigration rights where big Filipino contingents have marched in the streets alongside hundreds of thousands of immigrants. In the cases of the "Desperate Housewives" episode and Sentosa 27, the advocacy actions have elicited the support and participation not only of Filipino doctors and nurses but also other professionals , other service sectors, including lawyers. All these only show that issues and concerns that unite many Filipinos galvanize us to attend forums and other venues of discussions as well as into the streets for pickets and marches that serve to articulate our protests and demands for justice not only to the public but also to the media so that the voices are heard by thousands and even millions of people here and in the Philippines as well. It is through collective demands and unity such as these that Filipino expatriates in the United States gave effective support to the anti-Marcos dictatorship movement in the Philippines that was sparked by the assassination of Ninoy Aquino and culminated in the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, as well as in the removal of the morally-bankrupt Estrada presidency in 2001.

At this point, I would like to say something about the concept of "constructive dialogue" in relation to the "Desperate Housewives" issue. The framework of "constructive dialogue" had been pushed supposedly in the spirit of drawing a "win-win" situation requiring, however, the cessation of peaceful pickets and other protest actions against the ABC TV network. What happened was that, "constructive dialogue," designed to be held behind closed doors, led to giving certain concessions (e.g., promise of jobs and employment opportunities Filipino artists) that, in effect, diluted the Filipino communities' agitation for a real apology and other concrete measures and, hence, essentially led to the unsatisfactory resolution of the issue about racial prejudice. "Constructive dialogue," as a mechanism for resolving an issue, may be valid in a situation where the aggrieved party, for instance, is an individual. However, the injustice committed in the "Desperate Housewives" issue is racial prejudice, and the victims are a whole country. Cries of indignation, demands for apology, and calls for boycott came from Filipinos based not only in the U.S. but also in the Philippines and many other countries. They were asking for justice and redemption, not job opportunities, and certainly they were expecting the demand for justice to be dealt with transparently where the sentiments of millions of Filipinos are heard and heeded. To insinuate that pickets, calls for boycott, and class suits are not "constructive" or "proactive" is to deny the aggrieved people their freedom of speech and to use other forms of avenues in seeking redress within the bounds of the law. To hold a "constructive dialogue" within the closed walls of the global company that committed the racial slur is to restrict our collective articulation of protests to a select few. Let us be reminded that justice is never given or begged for, you have to fight for it even if the one that stole it from you is a global enterprise with a powerful communication network.

This is also why, even if we support the initiation of class suits in the continuing quest for justice, the avenues for articulating our protest and indignation should remain open. More so, if the class suit being filed is against a company that has unlimited resources under a justice system that is not always favorable to the actual victims of injustice. Alternative lawyering and legal resources approach emphasizes going beyond the usual court centered approach, emphasizing our ethnic collective interests and recognizing the importance of combining two or all forms and courses of action to achieve justice and redemption.

Today, our collective demand for justice and other issues should also welcome any moral, legal, and political support from other organizations in the spirit of solidarity and on the basis of mutually accepted principles. But the leadership of our campaign against ABC should remain in our own hands and collective efforts as members of the Filipino-American community, and those ready to assist us voluntarily and without any pre-conditions should uphold this leadership and initiative. This is a defining moment of Filipino American Empowerment, let us cherish it and move forward.

Let me close with an anecdote about two lifelong friends, a chicken and a pig, who were going on their usual morning work together. The pig turned to the chicken and asked "What do you think we should have for breakfast today? Quick as a flash, the chicken answered: "Bacon and Eggs" The Pig said, hey wait a minute!! You only want to participate, yet from me you expect total commitment.

In making our community of voices into a collective demand for justice in this campaign, we need to render total and complete commitment … no less…

Sa inyong lahat, Isa pong makabuluhan at mapayapang araw. Mabuhay ang lahat ng ating mga doctor at pangkalahatang mangagawa sa sector ng kalusugan…….Mabuhay ang Migranteng Pilipino……

SAVE MARILOU RANARIO!

She could be your mother, sister, tita, neice, or friend.....

Mga Kababayan sa New York at New Jersey,

This week, the Kuwaiti High Court of Cassation will begin hearing oral arguments for the case of Marilou Ranario, a 33 year old Filipina domestic worker from Surigao del Sur in jail and on death row. Marilou was convicted in 2005 for the murder of her employer, a man who was viciously abusing and raping her. The victim's family have since withdrawn their lawsuits against Marilou, yet she remains on death row (please see attached fact sheet.) and languishing in jail awaiting her sentence. She is currently supporting 2 children back in the Philippines while her husband can't find stable work as a jeepney driver.

Abuse, rape, and maltreatment are common experiences for our hardworking overseas Filipino workers, who are forced to choose a life abroad in order to escape poverty and provide for their families. Marilou represents all of us; yet despite this reality, the Philippine government is doing nothing to save her from execution by hanging. As was the case of Flor Contemplacion, a Filipina domestic worker who was executed by the Singapore judicial system in 1995, it is up to the worldwide community of Filipinos and migrant workers to stand up for justice when governments fail to protect their people, and show their might on the streets. Please visit and sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com / marilou/petition.html and join us for...

SAVE MARILOU RANARIO!
COMMUNITY PRAYER VIGIL TO SAVE THE LIFE OF MARILOU RANARIO, FILIPINA DOMESTIC WORKER ON DEATH ROW IN KUWAIT

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12TH, 7PM
MEET IN FRONT OF KRYSTAL'S
6902 ROOSEVELT AVE, CORNER 69TH

Sponsored by Kabalikat-Philippine Forum (Filipina Domestic Workers Support Network), the NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP) and the Save Marilou Ranario Movement (SMRM)

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SAVE MARILOU RANARIO!
NO TO ANOTHER FLOR CONTEMPLACION!
statement of concerned overseas Filipinos in New York City

We, NYC-based Filipina household workers, nannies, caregivers, along with other concerned overseas Filipinos and advocates of basic human rights, demand that our sister, Marilou Ranario, be released immediately from the Kuwaiti jail she continues to languish in since being convicted for the death of her employer in 2005.

Marilou, a 33-year old domestic worker who was viciously maltreated and abused by her employer, represents all of us overseas Filipinos who must leave our families back home in order to ensure they can eat. In order to escape poverty back in our homeland, we are left with little choice to but brave uncertain shores where we know abuse, exploitation, and maltreatment are common for Filipinos and other migrant workers. We also know a hard and lonely life overseas without the company of our families is better than a guaranteed life where our children will starve and have no opportunities. This was Marilou's story as well.

Marilou was a teacher from Surigao Del Sur that opted to leave to become a domestic worker abroad because she earned a more stable living doing so. She supported 2 small children back in the Philippines while her husband was unable to find stable work as a jeepney driver.

Back in 1995, the entire Filipino nation and overseas Filipino community struggled against the Philippine government's systemic neglect of the plight of overseas Filipino workers with the case Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino nanny who was hung after being wrongfully convicted for the death of her employer's child. As was the case with the high profile movement to set Flor free, the Philippine government made no political effort to save Flor's life. We fear the same will happen to Marilou.

Earlier this year, the mysterious and still-unresolved death of New York-based domestic worker Fely Garcia further proved the Philippine government's absence of concern and sympathy for OFW's abused and even killed.

Like Marilou, Flor and Fely, we are all victims of a Philippine government system known as the Labor Export Policy. This was originally established as a temporary measure to solve the country's crisis of joblessness and landlessness, forcing families to turn abroad for stable income, but the Philippine governments after Marcos turned it into a permanent fixture and means to keep the pathetic Philippine government afloat. Today, over 3000 Filipinos, mostly women, leave their children behind to work abroad. The total remittances that prop up the Philippine economy coming from overseas labor totals to more than $11 billion. These come from the suffering and toils of mainly Filipino women workers overseas.

The crime of the Labor Export Policy is that there is no program for protection for women like Flor and Marilou, who become victims of abuse, maltreatment, exploitation, rape, and indentured servitude. In many cases, Filipino workers are treated like animals, much less second-class citizens with no rights. Filipino women fall vulnerable to sexual abuse commonly.

But they are still Philippine citizens. Philippine embassies and consulate offices abroad are absolutely useless and fail to assert protections for our valued overseas workers, aggressively sending more workers overseas to face similar fates. The Arroyo administration has remained painfully silent while boasting of an economy sustained by migrant laborers like Marilou.

We say shame on the Philippine government for taking Marilou's remittances and doing nothing to legally protect her in a foreign land where she clearly has no rights as a human being. In this sense, the Arroyo government is no different than the foreign employers that treat Filipino workers like dogs in their host countries, and women workers as slaves.

We call on the Kuwaiti Court of Cassation, that will hear oral arguments this Tuesday, November 13th, on Marilou's case to strongly consider the united voice of Filipinos worldwide who today are taking the streets in defense of their Filipina sister, and decide not to execute her!

SAVE MARILOU RANARIO!
NO TO ANOTHER FLOR CONTEMPLACION!
JUSTICE FOR ALL OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKERS!
PROTECT THE RIGHTS AND DIGNITY OF OUR OFW'S!

Signed,
KABALIKAT-PHILIPPINE FORUM (DOMESTIC WORKERS SUPPORT GROUP)
NY COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PHILIPPINES
NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR FILIPINO CONCERNS (NAFCON)

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News Release
November 13, 2007

Reference: Lorena Sanchez, Philippine Forum-KABALIKAT (Domestic Workers Support), email: pf_kabalikat@yahoo.com

NY Filipinos Come Together to Say: Save Marilou Ranario!

New York-- The Filipina domestic workers support group known as KABALIKAT, a program of the community service organization Philippine Forum, spearheaded a solemn prayer vigil on the busy intersection of Roosevelt and 69th Street in Woodside, Queens last night as part of an international day of action to save the life of 33 year old Filipina domestic worker Marilou Ranario.

The group recited one full decade of the rosary for the Ranario, convicted of murdering her employer back in 2005 and currently on death row in Kuwait, despite large noise coming above from the 7 train. Marilou was also a victim of consistent abuse, maltreatment, and forced into indentured servitude by her employer.

"She represents all of us," states KABALIKAT Co-coordinator Shirley Cayugan-O'Brien. "We believe she is the real victim, not the criminal. We are all victims of a criminally-negligent Labor Export Policy."

Cayugan-O'Brien further explained it was the lack of protection offered by the Philippine government, particularly the overseas Philippine consular officers, that continue to victimize women workers like Marilou, who many fear will suffer the same fate as Singapore-based domestic worker Flor Contemplacion who was hung for a wrongful conviction of murder back in 1995.

November 13th was called as an international day of action by Migrante International, an alliance of overseas Filipino organizations of which KABALIKAT is a member. November 13th also marks the hearing of oral arguments of Marilou's case by the Kuwaiti Court of Cassation. The employer's family have since withdrawn their previous lawsuits against Ranario, a mother of two children from Surigao Del Sur.

KABALIKAT, Migrante International and the broader Save Marilou Ranario Movement (SMRM) claims the Kuwaiti Court will take into high consideration the public aspect of Marilou's case, in which strong public outpouring of support can also make a difference.

Actions were also held in Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, and throughout the Philippines.

Philippine Forum-KABALIKAT was joined by fellow concerned Filipinos from the NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines and Anakbayan. ###

AVALON 11-SENTOSA 27 STAY UNITED & STRONG DESPITE STALL TACTICS OF LONG ISLAND COURT

News Release
October 31, 2007

Reference: Rico Foz, Executive Vice President, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, email: nafconusa @ yahoo.com

AVALON 11-SENTOSA 27 STAY UNITED & STRONG DESPITE STALL TACTICS OF LONG ISLAND COURT
New York-- The 10 former nurses with Avalon Gardens Nursing Home in Long Island who resigned from their positions as contract nurses with the SentosaCare LLC and their lawyer Felix Vinluan maintained a firmness of morale and spirit as they faced the Judge Robert Doyle together in the Suffolk Criminal Courthouse Monday morning, despite new tactics to stall the date of their criminal hearing to December 17th.

The hearing followed a Sunday townhall meeting in Queens in support of the nurses and lawyer organized by the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns or NAFCON.

Also known as the Avalon 11, the nurses and attorney face criminal charges of patient endangerment filed by SentosaCare LLC and its owner and CEO Bent Philipson. The 10 nurses have written documentation proving they did not walkout on their patients mid-shift, but completed their shifts before submitting their resignation letters to the Sentosa-owned Avalon Gardens in Long Island.

The Avalon 11 are also members of the Sentosa 27++, a group of Filipino nurses who are waging a justice campaign against Sentosa and Philipson for workplace abuse, withheld wages, and large-scale breach of contracts that constitute massive illegal recruitment.

The Avalon 11 were joined by their families, friends, and members of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), Philippine Nurses Association, and staff members Mount St. Vincent's Hospital. Vinluan was represented by his attorney, Oscar Michelen, while the former Avalon Gardens nurses were represented by their attorney, James Druker.

After a more than one-hour conference with Michelen and Druker, Judge Doyle moved to postpone the hearing till Monday, December 17.

"These stall tactics are often used to demoralize," stated Michelen and Druker as the explained the judge's decision to the nurses in a caucus outside the courtroom.

The Avalon 11 have been able to withstand for the past year various stall tactics by the court system to postpone dates and divide-and-conquer attempts of the Sentosa camp, but agreed to not let this latest postponement diminish their morale and unity.

"We will just come back with more supporters," stated Felix Vinluan, who was joined by his children. "We are not disheartened by this. We draw great strength from our many supporters and allies."

An online petition accessible at www.petitiononline.com/j4s27 has already garnered thousands of signatures calling for the State of New York to drop all criminal and civil charges on the Sentosa 27 and investigate the operations of the SentosaCare LLC and Philipson.

Vinluan and the nurses have filed a pending special request with Governor Spitzer requesting for a special prosecutor, unconvinced they will receive a fair and objective trial with the Suffolk County District Attorney, given Philipson's big political connections and interest to divert public attention from his own company's criminal operations.

Upon leaving the courtroom, the Avalon 11 were welcomed by an energetic picket led by NAFCON. Chanters shouted "Prosecute Sentosa, not the nurses!" Picketers were marked by bright yellow t-shirts that read: THESE NURSES ARE NOT CRIMINALS! THEY SAVE LIVES! The picket ended with the group singing of "Solidarity Forever" led by NYSNA.

"We will never let up. We believe that justice will be served, no matter how long or winding the road is. The Avalon 11 have the truth on their side. Sentosa does not," stated NAFCON representative Rico Foz. ###

“Pardon for Erap Unpardonable!” - HEAD

Dear Friends,

Kindly forward this to our medical practitioners here in the US.

Thanks,
Rico Foz

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Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD)
2/F Doña Anita Bldg, 284 E. Rodriguez Ave., Quezon City
Telefax: (02) 725 4760
Email: headphil@gmail.com


Media Release
26 October 2007
“Pardon for Erap Unpardonable!” - HEAD

The executive clemency granted by Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to former President Joseph Estrada is the height of hypocrisy and an insult to the Filipino people. The crime of plunder for which Estrada was found guilty cannot be absolved by someone who is guilty of even bigger plunder and worse corruption.

Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD), the 3,000-strong national organization of health professionals, workers, and students believes that the issue of presidential pardon is being used for political expediency and has absolutely no basis in terms of dispensing justice.

“On the contrary, Mrs. Arroyo has undermined the entire judicial process and exposed how her administration condones, rather than condemns, plunder.” According to Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos, HEAD secretary-general.

“Can Mrs. Arroyo actually say that the grant of pardon was for the national interest? Who, aside from Erap and Gloria, stands to benefit from this?”

HEAD believes that the pardon is merely a “carrot-and-stick” approach of the administration not just for Erap but to woo his followers, neutralize the Opposition, and stem the rising tide of popular dissent against Mrs. Arroyo. After several influential Catholic bishops demanded her resignation “for lack of moral ascendancy”, pressure continued to rise due to a series of scandals of bribery and anomalous deals that point directly to her.

“Mrs. Arroyo has shown that she will literally beg, steal, or borrow in order to stay in power,” added Dr. Nisperos. “She barters the interests of the Filipino people to save her own skin, and she must be held accountable for such treachery. Our people demand nothing less than justice.”

“What Mrs. Arroyo has done is unpardonable!”

HEAD is joining calls for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation. “The current dispensation has lost all semblance of moral and political ascendancy. What is obvious is Mrs. Arroyo’s blind ambition to remain in power at all cost. Given the brazen arrogance and unscrupulous behavior of Mrs. Arroyo and her men, the litany of corruption scandals will only continue.”

The suffering of the Filipino people will also continue. Based on what happened over the last few years, Mrs. Arroyo will only wait for her regime to regain a semblance of stability before she unleashes the hounds of war and viciously persecute those who oppose her.

“The lies being peddled must stop now!” Dr. Nisperos ended. “We call on all members of the health sector and the Filipino people to unite and stand up against a corrupt, immoral, authoritarian, and demented president.”###

References:
Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos
Secretary-General, 0916 214 5724
Dr. Geneve E. Rivera
Deputy Secretary-General, 0920 460 3712