NSB: What support did your clients and yourself get, from the Filipino communities in the States and in the Philippines, perhaps?
Justice for Sentosa 27+ Campaign was established and is being spearheaded by the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) and its member-organizations. The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the Philippine Nurses Association of America (PNAA), the Philippine Nurses Association – New York (PNA-NY), the California Nurses Association (CNA), the Migrant Heritage Commission, and Region I of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA Region I) are some of the organizations supporting us. Presently, there is a campaign to urge New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to appoint a Special Prosecutor for the criminal cases, as we believe that political campaign contributions and political influence may have played a role in the actuations of the Suffolk County District Attorney in investigating and indicting the Avalon 10. Please refer to Newsday’s articles about this issue. The latest civil rights organization supporting the call for the Governor to appoint a Special Prosecutor is the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).
In addition to the campaign for the appointment of a special prosecutor, the nurses and I have reached out to the Filipino-American community to help us in our legal defense. We have set up a legal defense fund called the “Sentosa 27 Legal Defense Fund.”
In the Philippines, we have a similar J4S27+ Campaign being spearheaded by Migrante International, and is being supported by Alliance of Health Workers, HEAD (Health Alliance for Democracy), Philippine Nurses Association in the Philippines, and also by the Center for Migrant Advocacy. Both houses of Congress had recently initiated investigations in aid of legislation into the recruitment activities of SRA. We hope that Migrante would be able to make a headway into having the POEA issue another preventive suspension order against SRA, considering that there are still two sets of complaints still pending before POEA’s hearing officers. Contributed to (Bulatlat.com)
