By Allison Lopez
Inquirer
Last updated 08:17pm (Mla time) 11/28/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- Nearly 200 illegally photocopied nursing and medical textbooks sold near the Philippine Regulation Commission (PRC) building in Sampaloc, Manila, were seized by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in a raid last week.
Through a search warrant from Manila Regional Trial Court judge Aida Layug, members of the NBI-Special Action Unit led by head agent Angelito Magno confiscated the photocopied and bound books from Ferpage, RBL, and an unnamed store owned by a certain Vergel Viloria, on P. Paredes Street on November 21.
Confiscated were 131 assorted textbooks including NCLEX review series by Lippincott; 41 textbooks by Mosby, Elsevier and Saunders; 119 assorted compact discs; a record book, price list, and two computer sets.
The items, said Magno, were "complete and partially complete unauthorized reproductions of nursing and other allied medical science textbooks and CDs" by foreign publishers.
Representatives of C&E Publishing, the books' local distributor, sought help from the NBI to confiscate the pirated materials.
The textbooks cost P1,200-P1,500 each while the seized duplicates went for only P250-P300, Magno said.
He said the owners of the establishments will be charged with copyright infringement.
Gloria aids ‘Sentosa 27’ nurses
By Michael Caber
FILIPINO nurses in the United States embroiled in a battle with their employer SentosaCare Group of Companies have received a $25,000 assistance from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for their legal expenses.
Philippine Consulate general Cecilia Rebong handed over the money to 10 representatives of the nurses whom she met at the consulate office in New York, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Mrs. Arroyo had pledged to help the Filipino nurses after she met their representatives in New York last September.
The health care company had filed criminal and civil charges against the 27 nurses. There are now 38 Filipino nurses with various administrative, civil, and criminal cases against SentosaCare group of companies.
Their cases arose from alleged breaches of contract and discriminatory acts by SentosaCare, a major healthcare management company in New York that recruits health workers from the Philippines.
The Philippine Consulate has been extending its full support for the advancement of the welfare of the Filipino nurses abroad and to ensure they have full access to remedial measures and protection of their rights under the US laws.
The Filipino nurses, also known as the “Sentosa 27++ Nurses,” had gained recognition for speaking out against the recruitment agency of their employer, claiming to have suffered from false contracts, abuse, and withholding of wages.
The 27 Filipino nurses individually resigned from their posts. Sentosa, and its owner Bent Philipson, retaliated by filing civil and criminal charges for patient abandonment and endangerment.
The nurses are also campaigning for the immediate dropping of all criminal and civil charges against the Filipino nurses, immediate compensation of all backwages, and an investigation of Sentosa against laws outlawing human trafficking and involuntary servitude.
The original Sentosa 27 quickly expanded in number as more former Sentosa contract workers are coming forward with stories of abuse and maltreatment.
All the nurses were recruited as immigrant workers from the Philippines through Sentosa Recruitment Agency and they were surprised to learn upon arriving in the United States most of them were to work in a nursing home that was different from the one who sponsored them.
Sentosa claimed that since all the nursing homes were owned or managed by Bent Philipson, it was the same as working for their petitioners and that such an arrangement was acceptable.
Some of the nurses were made to work as clerks with wages of $12 to $14 per hour while nurses are paid from $35 to $45 per hour in the nursing homes.
The nurses also complained of nonpayment of overtime and shift differential wages, shorter hours and abusive supervisors.
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100 Filipino nurses to work in Tokyo
The Tokyo metropolitan government plans to allow about 100 nurses and welfare care workers from the Philippines to work in the metropolis from fiscal 2008, officials said Wednesday.
The decision stemmed from the economic partnership agreement that Japan and the Philippines signed in September last year.
Tokyo is the first local government to announce it would accept Filipino nurses and caregivers.
The metropolitan government plans to accept about 10 Filipino workers at its hospitals and other facilities and ask the private sector to accept the remaining 90 through the Tokyo Medical Association.
The most difficult obstacle to overcome for Filipinos wanting to work in Japan in the medical field is obtaining Japanese certification. But the health ministry has yet to come up with any measures to assist prospective workers.
The Tokyo government plans to approach the Philippine side with specific assistance programs prior to the national government, according to the officials.
According to data by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and other sources, Japan is experiencing a shortfall of more than 40,000 nurses, with Tokyo needing about 3,000 more than it has.
The situation is set to become even more serious with an expected shortage of 400,000 to 600,000 welfare care workers in 10 years, when society will have aged even further.
Under an EPA-based system, the Japan International Corporation of Welfare Services, which is under the aegis of the health ministry, will allocate Filipino nurses and caregivers to medical institutions and other facilities across the country that wish to accept Filipino workers. The system envisages accepting 400 nurses and 600 welfare care workers from the Philippines.
Following six months of Japanese-language training, they will work as assistants at medical institutions and other places, for three years in case of nurses and four years for welfare care workers, while preparing for the national exam.
Upon passing the test, they will be granted special-status visas enabling them to work in Japan as long as they wish. However, if they fail to pass the national exam within the specified period, they will be asked to return home.
Therefore, those institutions wishing to accept Filipino workers are expected to provide sufficient aid programs to help the workers acquire Japanese licenses.
"Unless something is done, we're afraid that no one will be able to pass the test," an official of the Tokyo government's Social Welfare and Public Health Bureau said.
For one thing, national exam takers must master the Japanese for a wide variety of complex medical terminology.
To tackle such problems, the Tokyo metropolitan government plans to take various assistance measures to help Filipino exam takers.
For instance, the government plans to translate Japanese-language study materials into English and dispatch specialized instructors as part of its education program.
The EPA between the two countries will go into effect after being ratified by the Philippine Congress.
Expecting the agreement's speedy ratification, the Tokyo metropolitan government dispatched officials to the Philippines earlier this month to meet with representatives of the country's nurses' association to solicit opinions on its Japanese education materials.
The metropolitan government plans to appropriate funding for the assistance program in the fiscal 2008 budget. Japan has concluded EPAs with eight countries, including Thailand and the Philippines, and is negotiating with seven more countries and regions.
Far from home, Filipino nurses still give back
Members of the Philippine Nurses Association of Oregon and Washington are fund-raising for a medical mission
By Jennifer Clampet 
Jennifer Clampet / The Times
HIGHLAND TRADITIONS — Bogs Nabehet, Editha Clift and Marilyn Anderson practice parts of a traditional Philippine highland dance at the Tualatin Heritage Center.
TUALATIN – Lucy Laeser lives and works in Oregon. But her heart, family and mind thrive in the Philippines.
Like 11 million overseas Filipinos, Laeser, of Tualatin, enjoys living in another country but still works to help support her family – her sister and nephews – back home. (Overseas Filipino is a phrase used to describe people of Philippine origin who live outside the Philippines.)
In a few months, Laeser and several other members of the Philippine Nurses Association of Oregon and Washington will travel to the Philippines to provide medical help to poverty-stricken residents in two mountain-region provinces.
“In the Philippines we help people out like families, even if we are not family,” Laeser said. “I’ve learned from not living there that that’s who we are. We help others.”
The medical mission slated for February 2008 will be the second mission the local chapter has participated in. In January, the group traveled to the Bicol region of the Philippines to help render aid to residents who had lost their homes during a volcanic eruption and typhoon.
The second mission coincides with an international conference for Filipino nurses in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. After attending the conference, members of the PNAOW will travel to the Nueva Viscaya and Banaue provinces.
“To me it’s about giving back to our country,” said Laeser, a registered nurse who graduated from school in the Philippines and moved to the United States in 1978. In 1988 she became an active member of the Philippine Nurses Association of America. She now serves as president of the Oregon and Washington chapter.
The PNAOW plans to distribute supplies like toothbrushes, toothpaste and school and health supplies to about 200 mountain villagers. The group’s last fund-raiser for the mission will be held Saturday as part of A Taste of the Philippines event at the Tualatin Heritage Center, 8700 S.W. Sweek Drive.
A lunch of roast pig, lumpia, pancit and adobo will be served at the Tualatin Police Department from noon to 1:30 p.m. The cost is $10 for adults and $5 for children.
The rest of the event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. is free. World War II veterans will provide first-hand accounts of the country during the war. And artifacts and dance performances depicting the mountain cultures will also be shown. For more information on PNAOW, visit www.pnaow.org.
“This is the start of hopefully something big,” said Emily Rice, of Tigard, a volunteer at the heritage center.
Rice describes her native country as similar to Oregon with a bounty of green trees and a mountain landscape. She notes that the mountain regions are more removed from the influences of Western culture. The people are poor, Rice said.
“The Philippines is a third world country, and most people look for opportunities elsewhere,” Laeser said.
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