166 Contractual Workers Summarily Dismissed by DOH Seek “Justice”

PRESS RELEASE:

July 25, 2011

“Unjust, inhumane, morally degrading,” these were the general sentiments of 166 Job Order/Contractual Personnel summarily dismissed last June 30, 2011 by the DOH central office from further undertaking the health program Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) under the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control (NCDPC).  Among them were 75 registered nurses that comprise 46% of the total project workforce.

As per the account of  “Mark”, one of the field nurses, they learned of their termination late afternoon of June 30, 2011, from Ms. Vivencia Martinez, NCDPC Administrative officer who instructed 166 of them  not to report for work anymore effective the following day Friday, July 1, 2011 because, according to her, NCDPC  Director IV Dr. Lilibeth David said their Contracts have already ended. Then, at exactly 5 p.m. of the same day, a memo was posted signed by Dr. Kenneth Ronquillo, Director IV of the Health Human Resource Development Bureau (HHRDB) affirming said order with further advise for them to undergo a clearance process for the release of their last salary for service rendered between June 15 to 30, 2011.

“We were stunned and many were devastated of the sudden  and unexpected termination of our contracts.  Many of us nurses just arrived from an exhausting field work doing measles immunization where we really scoured the remotest villages to ensure that young children were given the measle shots.”

He said that the action of the present NCDPC management team under Dr. Lilibeth David was illegal if not questionable because the workers have already signed a contract for July-December 2011 under the former NCDPC head Director IV Dr. Eduardo C. Janairo prior to his transfer  to his current assignment at  Center for Health and Development-NCR.   The contract signing was done in May 2011 after a satisfactory job performance evaluation of the workers that served as basis for the renewal of their contracts from July to December, 2011.

Aggravating this “injustice” was the holding and non-release of the workers’ last salary and reimbursements of work-related expenses.  Not only were they not given due notice of their termination, they were also deprived of the salary that they have already worked for therefore rightfully theirs.

A petition signed by some of the terminated workers, including nurses, appealing for an immediate resolution of the case has been submitted to the Office of the Secretary, Dr. Enrique Ona; no response yet.  A complaint has also been filed with the Ombudsman and a letter was likewise submitted to the legal department of the Department of Health.

References:     MS. MARIS PRESTO-ABENOJAR, MAN, RN

Vice-President, NARS ng Bayan

cp : 09331827323 email: nars.philippines@yahoo.com

MR. MARK ALCARAZ DAQUIGAN, RN

cp: 09054307358

MR. JEOMAR BALAO-AS, RN

cp: 09395707858

Note:  All three were dismissed contractual nurses

MS. ELEANOR M. NOLASCO, RN

0915 513 6080; 0922 828 0928

President, NARS ng Bayan,

an association of Community Health Nurses and People’s Health Advocates
            

 

 

PPPs in health threaten to make health care costlier – health workers - Bulatlat

Published on July 22, 2011

“You go to a public hospital emergency room to have your wound cleaned, you have to first buy some cotton, wound antiseptic, and dressings, before you can be treated,” said Joel Bitanga, 40, an X-ray technician in San Lazaro Hospital.

By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

Sidebar: Health workers blame Aquino’s PPPs for further crippling the Philippine Orthopedic Center

MANILA – After one year, healthcare in the country has gone from bad to worse — this is the assessment of the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) on the Aquino government’s impact on health. In a series of protests held by its member unions in different public hospitals in Metro Manila, the group aired the various shocks of Aquino’s touted PPPs (public-private partnerships) on the services of public hospitals and the working condition of health workers and professionals in the country. The group challenged Aquino to stop the privatization “in any form” of public hospitals and to bail out public health by infusing it with a P90-billion ($2.09 billion) budget at least.

UP-PGH health workers urge their hospital management to revert to giving poorest charity patients free treatment. A mother brought out a child patient. (Photos by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)

During Aquino’s first year, the country’s main public hospital, the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), for example, has, for the first time in its history, resorted to charging fees even from its lowest ranked charity or indigent patients. In a memo issued last month, the PGH administration reportedly directed its hospital staff to charge the previously free diagnostic and laboratory examinations of “class D” patients. These are the patients who, according to the hospital social workers, belong to the lowest earners or the poorest of the poor among the four groups who qualify for “social service.” Class D used to receive full support (or full charity), while the other classes under social service get discounts, much like the socialized tuition fees being implemented in the University of the Philippines, explained Jossel Ebesate, AHW national president.

In the Philippine Orthopedic Center, fees have been drastically increased early this year, with some increasing more than twice its old amount.

Because of the budget cutbacks implemented by the Aquino administration in the budget for maintenance and other operating expenses of public hospitals, the previous shortages in medicines, supplies and other equipment have become worse, reported the AHW. The exacerbated shortage in turn prompted the administrations of public hospitals to increase fees and to charge fees on previously free items in the hospital menu of services.

“You go to a public hospital emergency room to have your wound cleaned, you have to first buy some cotton, wound antiseptic, and dressings, before you can be treated,” said Joel Bitanga, 40, an X-ray technician in San Lazaro Hospital. He added that if you were brought to their hospital and you can’t breathe, you have to buy the hose and other paraphernalia for your oxygen.

Health workers and a child urge the Aquino government to treat healthcare not as source of profit but as public service.(Photos by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)

Picketing in front of San Lazaro Hospital, then at Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center and in front of the Department of Health, the health workers decried last Monday the increased fees also prevalent in the Philippine Heart Center, the Lung Center of the Philippines, the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) and the East Avenue Center (EAMC). These are some of the hospitals retained by the national government after it implemented a devolution of health services in 1992.

The practice of charging and increasing fees which the majority of low-income Filipinos are already finding as tough, would likely worsen if the Aquino government pushes through with its planned PPPs targeting even government hospitals, the AHW warned.

Already, the health group noted that some private companies that were able to get concessions in public hospitals have been profiting from this public-private partnership. They cited as example Himex, which provides the radiology “services” of Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center; the Carte-blance in Lung Center which profits from its dietary services; and Fabricare for Lung Center’s laundry. In PGH, the privately-operated Faculty Medical Arts Building has begun operations this year.

In public hospitals being operated by local government units, a measure of success is the increase in hospital income, which could be
had by adding “private” or “pay wards” and other services that charge fees. The biggest example, for having been the first to be declared as a corporatized hospital is the La Union Medical Center. Provincial hospitals are now trying to follow its example, after its local governments have sent their public hospitals’ directors and staff to “Lakbay Aral” (Study Travel) to learn from “successful” provincial public hospitals.

Up for starting new PPPs soon are the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC), the San Lazaro Hospital and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM). While the moves are seeking to improve and upgrade the said hospitals – something which the health workers’ union said they also wish to happen – they are decrying the fact that these have to be planned under a PPP setup. They urged the government instead to fund the needed development, rather than enter into partnerships with the private sector whose motives for entering health services are mainly for profit.

Health groups blame US imperialist dictates for Aquino’s drive to privatize and commercialize healthcare.(Photo by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)

“What will happen to our mentally ill patients? Will they be abandoned on the streets?” asked Arman Palaganas, vice-president of the health workers’ union in National Center for Mental Health. This mental hospital and the Philippine Heart Center are up for bidding in a public auction set to be held under the Aquino administration, the AHW reported.

When all these upcoming PPPs happen, the AHW warned, health care will become even less accessible to ordinary Filipinos.

Killing you softly

Given the frequently slashed budgets, health workers’ wages and benefits have also taken a beating. In fact, the Department of Budget and Management itself has told public hospital administrators and even local government units that benefits being given to health workers are contingent on the hospital’s savings or on the availability of funds. The result, according to AHW, is either lacking or almost nil benefits especially for health workers under the local government units.

A PGH patient’s charity cards and papers attesting to her indigency could mean little now in terms of free or affordable treatment. (Photo by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)

For twenty years now, the country’s plantilla position for health workers and professionals have barely increased, despite the continued pressure of population increases. Worse, while the plantilla positions are being controlled, the AHW noted that the ranks of the country’s health workers are under attack and being reduced by bouts of retrenchment or streamlining through transfer, attrition and early retirement.

Instead of replacing the lost regular health workers, AHW noted that the government itself has been increasingly implementing “flexible labor arrangements,” a favorite under profit-oriented corporations. In the health sector, these arrangements range from contractualization, job-order employment (similar to project-based hiring), and the notorious “volunteerism” where the hospitals not only do not pay the health professionals who serve them but even make them pay for the “training” and “experience.”

As if to gag the health workers’ groups who have been criticizing and providing proofs of the government’s abandonment of its responsibility top ensure the people’s health, there are alleged moves from public hospital managements to bust the health workers’ unions, or else “deceive, divide and crush” the progressive unions under the Alliance of Health Workers. The AHW complained that the management of some public hospitals, such as the National Center for Mental Health, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Philippine Orthopedic Center and Philippine Children’s Medical Center, “do not recognize and even try to coerce the accredited sole bargaining unit.”

As such, judging from the way the government has been treating Filipinos as patients and as health workers, the health group charged that “the people has never been Aquino’s real ‘boss,’ as he had boasted, but the politicians, the local big landlords and the big local and foreign investors.”

The poor cannot survive under the Aquino government’s health agenda of privatization, the Health Alliance for Democracy said in a statement. The poor will get sicker and die sooner if the rate increases continued, said PGH nursing attendant Ellen Jamison in a picket protest in front of the PGH this week.

The health groups encourage health workers and the families of patients in public hospitals to join in protesting privatization and pushing for health as a human right.

PPPs in health threaten to make health care costlier – health workers - Bulatlat

Aquino’s ‘universal health care’ a sham — health workers

By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
Published on May 12, 201


MANILA— “Other people including graduates of ‘mere four-year-courses’ are earning higher salaries than me,” said a trained surgeon working for years now at a district hospital in a province north of Manila. He said that lack of doctors in their hospital has also forced him to work on “all kinds of cases and not just on an operating table.” Today, he admitted that he is applying for a job abroad. As a surgeon, he thought his career is also in danger here as a new regulation is “being cooked up” by the PRC (Professional Regulations Commission) in Manila requiring people like him to become member of a certain society of surgeons first, before he can renew his license.

Still, this doctor went to Manila and braved the scorching summer heat to join his colleagues from different hospitals and practices in commemorating the National Health Workers’ Day last May 7. The Health Workers’ Day main program peaked at high noon at the Mendiola Bridge.

Almost a year into Aquino’s presidency, health workers complained they “still suffer from low salaries, inadequate benefits and understaffing,” a plight some of them had thought would change under President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. In his election campaign, Aquino was reputedly the only candidate who had promised to take care of public health. But today, a year into his presidency, a bigger allocation of the public purse has been going to militarization and debt servicing rather than public services such as health, said the health workers’ groups.

(Photo by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)

To finance health, Aquino increasingly turns to PPPs (public-private partnerships), which, the health workers’ groups said, are treating health services as “profitable” ventures rather than public services. They said the PPPs make health services available but costly to average Filipinos.

An elderly public hospital employee who went on leave to join her fellow health workers in their nationwide protest told Bulatlat.com they had “really believed things would be different with Aquino. But here we are again,” she said, “asking for the same things.”

In commemorating the National Health Workers’ Day last May 7, health workers held a protest caravan from the Lung Center of the Philippines, early morning, stopped for a brief program in front of the University of Sto.Tomas in España, then proceeded by midday to their main program at the Mendiola Bridge near Malacañang. The health workers are demanding a salary increase of P6,000 ($139.75) per month. The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) said they conducted the Health Workers Day protest also to “continue the fight for jobs, rights and health of the people.”

Government employees expose Malacañang’s ‘fake salary hike announcement - Bulatlat

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

Empty lies and pure rhetoric.

According to the Confederation for Unity, Advancement and Recognition of Government Employees (COURAGE) , these are what comprise Malacañang’s post-Labor Day announcement. On May 1, Palace spokespersons said that President Benigno Aquino III has approved a salary adjustment for government workers and that it will be released in June.

Courage president Ferdinand Gaite said the announcement was meant to enhance President Aquino’s image in the eyes of state workers, many of whom have been steadily becoming disillusioned with his administration and its failure to implement significant economic reforms.

According to Gaite, the Aquino administration was trying to fool the public with its announcement.

“Malacañang claimed that administration officials, together with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the president pulled strings just so employee’s demand for a wage hike can be made possible. This is a lie,” he said.

Gaite said that what Malacañang did is to fast-track the implementation of the third tranche of Salary Standardization Law 3 (SSL 3), originally set to be released in July.

Courage president Ferdinand Gaite joins the Labor Day rally.(Photo by Ina Alleco R. Silverio/ bulatlat.com)

“Employees have nothing to look forward to because even before we receive our ‘adjusted’ salaries. The real value of the amount has already been eroded by inflation. Most rank-and-file employees have already committed it to pay their debts,” said Gaite.

The union leader said the second tranche of the SSL 3, the law mandating the staggered pay adjustment scheme passed during the Arroyo Administration, was also released in June last year.

“There’s absolutely nothing for Malacañang to brag about, and even more certain is the fact that government employees have nothing to thank President Aquino for,” he said.

Gaite said that for the country’s rank-and-file government employees who are already struggling to survive amid the rising costs of commodities, the issue is already beyond the SSL 3.He said that only President Aquino and top government officials with enormous pay hikes have benefitted and continue to benefit from the SSL 3.

“As for the rest of us, for the lower-salary grade employees and minimum wage earners subsist on meager wages, the SSL 3 is useless. Even with the full implementation of SSL 3 next year in 2012, the minimum pay will still only amount to P 9, 000 (US$209), way below the government’s estimated average Family Living Wage (FLW) pegged at P29, 640 (US$689.30) per month. We stand by our demand for a P6,000 (US$140) increase to the minimum pay of all government employees.,” Gaite insisted.

Government employees expose Malacañang’s ‘fake salary hike announcement - Bulatlat

YouTube - SONA - How much can average Pinoy salary buy? 04/25/11

YouTube - SONA - How much can average Pinoy salary buy? 04/25/11

BusinessWorld Online Edition | May Day distress call

No one -- not even employers or the government -- will dispute the sad state of Philippine labor today. The figures do not lie or dissemble. And yet year in and year out, government and employers merely raise their hands and feign helplessness over the situation. They repeat the same old line: wage increases would result in inflation, causing greater woes for workers including the threat of losing their jobs, since higher wages could result in their employers going bankrupt.

What are hidden from view are the huge profits raked in by foreign and local corporations in stark contrast to workers’ starvation wages.

Preliminary results of the 2008 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) of the National Statistics Office (NSO) as cited by IBON Foundation, show that establishments in the country with total employment of 20 and over had combined profits of P895.2 billion and 2.74 million employees.

Even more revealing, the Top 1,000 corporations in the country reaped a cumulative annual net income of P3,788.9 billion over the period 2001-2009.

According to IBON, an across-the-board wage hike of P125 means workers will receive an additional P3,802 per month. Employers will spend an additional P49,427 per employee per year (assuming 13 months of pay). The total cost of the proposed wage hike will only be P135.6 billion which, subtracted from total profits, will still leave establishments with P759.6 billion in profits.

The P125 across-the-board increase called for by the Kilusang Mayo Uno will only cut employers’ profit margins by 15%. Assuming employers will not pass on to consumers any legislated minimum wage increase, there will be no significant inflationary effect. Because their enterprises continue to be profitable, there is no reason for them to close shop.

Consider that the average daily basic pay that wage and salary workers in the country actually received -- as opposed to merely mandated minimum wages that are not necessarily actually paid -- increased from P222 in 2001 to a measly P301 in 2010 (NSO Labor Force Survey, April 2010). The minimum daily wage of P404 in the National Capital Region is not even half of the estimated average family living wage (FLW) of P988 as of March 2011.

A large wage hike will be beneficial not just for workers and their families but also the economy, IBON added. The transfer of money from rich to poor households will increase aggregate demand and stimulate the economy...

BusinessWorld Online Edition |MayDay distress call

Filipino Workers' victories and struggles celebrated in NY as May Day nears

Philippine Forum-NewYork/
http://nafconusa.org

NEWS RELEASE
21 April 2011

Reference: Anne Beryl Corotan; National Chairperson of NAFCON Youth Alliance, SANDIWA
Contact Info: sandiwa.national@gmail.com, info@nafconusa.org, (718) 5658862

NEW YORK -- On March 30, 2011, the "Justice for Sentosa 27++ Nurses" campaign has reached another milestone. US District Judge Joseph Bianco allowed a civil rights lawsuit to proceed against defendants Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota, his top assistant Leonardo Lato and the Sentosa Care nursing home firm. The suit states that defendants conspired to prosecute in retaliation for the mass resignation of the nurses from Sentosa Care last 2007. This decision puts more armor as the nurses and Atty. Felix Vinluan, the lawyer who was charged of conspiracy with the nurses, stride forward in struggling for justice and victory.

“I am happy with the recent developments. This is what we've hoped for in the first place but at the same time I can’t help feel a tinge of fear -- fear of the unknown and uncertainty. I do, however, console myself that we've always had truth as our guide and a myriad of support system as our shield,” says Archiel Buagas, one of the former nurses of Sentosa Care.

The Sentosa Nurses' Saga

The story unfolds in 2006 when the Sentosa 27++ (26 nurses and 1 physical therapist, and more healthworkers came out after) held a massive resignation from their health care facilities in protest of contract violations that Sentosa recruitment agency has committed against them. In retaliation, the Sentosa agency filed administrative and criminal charges, such as patient endangerment, against the health workers. Sentosa agency also charged Atty. Felix Vinluan with conspiracy for allegedly advising them on the resignation.

In 2007, the full blown campaign, "Justice for Sentosa 27++", spearheaded by the health workers, Atty. Vinluan and the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), garnered support from all over the United States, in the Philippines and in a global scale. The strong collective strength, support and work of the community, various organizations and the bond between the healthworkers forged the way into sharply bringing attention to the case and the campaign.

"From the start, we, in NAFCON, have always believed that the nurses and Atty. Vinluan will win this fight. It may have taken years and a lot of strength and courage from the nurses and Atty. Vinluan to carry on with the big fight against this big company with its big political backers. But with collective action within the community, we have succeeded not just in achieving these gradual victories, but also in bringing awareness to the public that these kinds of abuses happen to our fellow Filipino migrant workers and that there are institutions which must be held accountable," states Jonna Baldres, Community Action Director for Philippine Forum-New York and NAFCON-US North East Coordinator.

On January 13, 2009, the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, Second Department issued a writ prohibiting the criminal prosecution as it violates the nurses’ 13th Amendment right against involuntary servitude and Vinluan’s 1st Amendment right to free speech. It was at this time that the campaign of Sentosa 27++ was relaunched to “up the ante”.

On May 20, 2010, the New York Supreme court through Judge Stephen A. Bucaria denied Sentosa Care’s motion for summary judgment in the breach of contract case against the health workers. The court at this time also invalidated the enforceability of Sentosa Care’s claim for liquidated damages of $25,000.00 upon employee’s termination of the contract.

Victory for the Sentosa 27++ but the fight continues

These back to back victories, leading up to the most recent, were made possible by collective actions, committed support and unyielding passion to struggle for truth and justice. The fight has claimed victories but for the health workers, Atty. Vinluan, and the community, the fight is still far from over.

"The case of the Sentosa nurses is just a start. We have Leticia Moratal, Jacqueline Aguirre, Arizona 34 and hundreds more who have come out to give voice to the abused and trafficked migrant workers. And we will continue to fight and we believe we will win these struggles eventually as the community rallies behind us. We have seen it with the case of the Sentosa nurses, we believe we will witness more victories with the cases of the other trafficked victims," said Atty. Vinluan.

At present, NAFCON is handling more than a hundred cases of labor trafficking nationwide through its Stop Trafficking Our People (STOP) Campaign. Victims of Philippine-based recruitment agencies have come to the United States mostly on H2B visas, were promised certain provisions by the employers but were moved somewhere else and ended up working on different and inhumane conditions. With the neglect of employers and not having been given proper assistance by the Philippine government, the workers are oftentimes forced to deal with loss of status, making them more vulnerable and subject to criminalization by state forces.

"As long as the Labor Export Program (LEP) -- the policy of the Philippine government of sending away its people to other countries for profit -- is in effect, these types of abuses, such as what happened to the Sentosa nurses and the other trafficked victims, will persist. The current Philippine administration under President Aquino promised to increase jobs at home, and increase aid to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) abroad. The challenge still remains until fruition is seen. We, in NAFCON, join the people in demanding from the Philippine government the generation of domestic jobs by pursuing genuine agrarian reforms and development of national industries so that the citizenry are no longer forced to decide and leave the country," states Baldres.

Call to rise up and speak out on May Day

Today, OFWs still suffer from worsening work conditions, abuse and government neglect. In its commitment to fight for workers' rights, NAFCON calls on all members of the community to stand up and let their voices be heard.

On April 24, member organizations of NAFCON such as Kabalikat Domestic Workers' Support Network and Philippine Forum, among others, will be marching for labor and human rights with the Independent Workers Movement and other migrant workers organizations. The march will start at the Bayanihan Filipino Community Center (40-21 69th St Woodside, NY) at 12nn.

“NAFCON is firmly committed to protect the rights and welfare of our kababayans in the United States. We will continue to fight until all demands are achieved. We demand Justice for Sentosa 27++. We demand to STOP trafficking our people. We demand an end to LEP. We demand legalization for all. We want justice for all migrant workers,” firmly positioned by Baldres.

On May 1st for the International Workers' May Day, together with the May 1st Coalition and other migrant and labor organizations and unions, we will march to stand up for workers and im/migrants' rights. Program will start 12nn at Union Square.

“It is the truth, we are the masses, we are the grassroots and we are the common. We blend in because we are one. Those in power are only as good as those that lift them up. We are their life source but oftentimes, they forget that the lowliest of us can also be their greatest strength. People need not live in shadows anymore, they have the option of speaking out and making things better for others. We might not see the effects now but I’m hoping in the near future, the lives of future workers and immigrants will be better because we insisted our voices be heard,” Buagas ended. ####

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The National Alliance for Filipino Concerns [NAFCON] is a national multi-issue alliance of Filipino organizations and individuals in the United States serving to protect the rights and welfare of Filipinos by fighting for social, economic, and racial justice and equality. It was launched in San Jose California in 2003. At present, NAFCON member organizations encompass over 23 cities in the United States.

Please visit nafconusa.org for more information on NAFCON and its campaigns. To join the NAFCON news list, please send a request to info@nafconusa.org.