Filipino Healthcare Townhall Meeting

In Their Own Words

Nearly a hundred people attended the first-ever Chicago area Townhall meeting focusing on the plight and circumstances of Filipino Healthcare Workers on Sunday, February 5th.  The three-hour long event at the FACC Rizal Center was educational, enlightening and entertaining for all those who attended -- many of them Filipinos working in the healthcare industry.  

 Click the "sun" link to watch NBC5 News Coverage

“This was a very good event.  It’s something we’ve never done here at the Rizal Center before,” said Herminio Poblete, president of the FACC. “I hope we can do more events like this in the future.”

Many established Filipino American community leaders attended, including Via Times columnist, Elsie Sy-Niebar.  She said she was glad to see that the center hosted a forum that covered an important issue for the community.  She called it a welcome alternative to past events at the Filipino American community center. 

The event attracted dozens of new faces to the Rizal Center.  Yvonne Hortillo, of Chicago, found the Townhall environment to be positively welcoming and engaging. She called it a good experience, and says she learned a lot.  "It was totally cool - not to mention refreshing," said Hortillo. "Here is [a] meeting... that tries to give assurance to kababayans in Chicago that dissolves issues of whether one was born in Chicago, or had immigrated there. To the organizers, there's no difference between whether you had just arrived "fresh off the boat" or if you were born and raised here."

Why Hold a Townhall?

The idea for the Townhall Meeting sprang from the November 2^nd news reports on Raynaldo Brucal, Jr., the 18-year-old healthcare worker accused of raping and impregnating a mentally-disabled young woman at a Bloomingdale nursing home.

The report, by NBC 5’s Renee Ferguson was the first of many news clips shown at the Townhall Meeting. Attendees saw and heard the first few words of Ferguson's report, "He's an 18-year-old Filipino..." which showed considerable insensitivity. After receiving hundreds of e-mails, phone calls and letters, NBC 5’s management held a meeting with some members of the Filipino community. The station responded quickly and appropriately. Within 48 hours, they had issued verbal and written apologies. In addition, NBC5 General Manager, Larry Wert, stopped by the Rizal Center personally.

Town Hall moderator, Rose Tibayan, explained why such a report would be damaging not only to the 100,000 Filipino Americans in our area, but especially harmful to those who work in the healthcare industry. Healthcare happens to be the leading career choice for many young Filipino Americans at local colleges and universities, and one of the driving forces behind Filipino immigration to the United States. Numbers show that about 80-percent of the foreign nurses working in the U.S. come from the Philippines. 

"We don't condone Brucal's alleged crime," Tibayan told the crowd, "but every negative story in the mainstream media about a Filipino healthcare worker has the potential of reflecting back on us. Brucal's story is HIS story -- not ours as a community." 

She went on to say that negative stories about immigrants reinforces the opinions of many anti-immigration supporters and lawmakers in this country. And that could lead to a reduction in quotas and H-1 Visas given to Filipinos.

Tibayan said that recent research of other television reports revealed that NBC5 wasn't the only station to mention Brucal's ethnic background. Juan Carlos Fanjul of WGN Channel 9 used the word "Filipino" in two Brucal stories.

"The Brucal case and subsequent community response prompted many to take a look at the general public's perception of local Filipinos and Filipino Americans and our community's history," said Tibayan. "But Brucal isn't the first Filipino healthcare worker to make the 10 o'clock news...

Filipino Healthcare Workers In The News

"It's just ironic that the very first time Chicago or the country first heard about a Filipino healthcare worker in the news involved the most shocking news story of the day," said Ting Joven, FACC director of press and public relations. 

"Two of the eight nurses Richard Speck raped and murdered in 1966 were Filipinas," said Joven. "And the lone survivor, Corazon Amurao, had immigrated from Batangas just a few months before the crime." 

Joven played a series of past and present news clips which showed Filipino healthcare workers in the news. She led off with a 1991 ABC7 television interview with Amurao, where she spoke for the first time after Speck had died in prison. By then, Amurao had married, raised two children and moved to the East Coast. 

Joven showed news clips on the criminal convictions of two other Filipino healthcare workers five years ago. Kenneth Pebenito was convicted of sexually assaulting several young girls and women under his care. And Lito Barreintos was found guilty of sexually assaulting an elderly woman. Both are now serving time in prison.

"While the sex assaults are troubling, they are not... not unique to our community," said Joven. "There are thousands of other cases at healthcare facilities that have made the news that do not involve Filipinos."

Joven showed two positive news stories about Filipino American healthcare workers. The first was a 2004 clip about Nestor Pecson, a Navy corpsman who spent more than a year in Iraq.  The clip showed Pecson's co-workers at Chicago's Swedish Covenant Hospital throwing a party for him the day before he was to be deployed to the war zone.  While in Iraq, Nestor was assigned as a medic to a Marine unit and treated injured soldiers and Marines. He returned home safely late last year from his tour of duty and is back at his job as a nurse in Chicago.

Joven also talked about Dolly Arro, the long-time personal nurse of actor Christopher Reeve.  Arro spent hours caring for the actor and helped in his rehabilitation. She was one of the people to speak at Reeves' memorial at New York City's Lincoln Center.

"Tens of thousands of Filipino Healthcare workers toil every day around Chicago and the country," said Joven. "They care passionately about the sick, the elderly, children, people with disabilities and soldiers wounded in battle. Their importance... your importance, as healthcare workers... is the reason why we're gathered here today."

Our History

Jean Paredes, a nurse manager in the Dual Diagnosis Program at Methodist Hospital of Chicago, provided a 40-year historical retrospective through a montage of archive photos of her own life as a young nurse migrating to a new country. She immigrated to the U.S. back in 1962, after graduating from the University of the Philippines. The montage began with a picture of a 21-year-old woman at her hat pinning ceremony, followed by other photos including class pictures back in the Philippines and the image of her departing Manila International Airport. 

She recounted her first stop in the U.S. -- the small town of Idaho Falls where she worked at a hospital run by the Sisters of Charity.  After spending some time there, she moved to Chicago. Jean talked about how the U.S. has changed from the turbulent 60s, the free spirit of the 70s, to the 80s, 90s and today.  She also spoke about how the Richard Speck murders shocked her and other nurses. "I used to sometimes sleep at Montrose Park," said Paredes. "But after the murders, I was so scared. We were all scared."

Paredes overcame her fears and continued to work in the nursing profession. Today, she holds a position of management. Her dedication to the profession goes beyond earning a living. Paredes volunteers her time at a weekly senior health clinic she founded at the Rizal Center. 

Following her presentation, Parades announced a new initiative between the Philippine Nurses Association of Chicago and The University of the Philippines Nursing Alumni Association of the Midwest. Parades said the two groups will work to mentor nurses immigrating from the Philippines, as well as nursing school graduates.

“We want to impart on them some of our knowledge and let them know that there’s more to the nursing profession than just working and making money. We want them to advance further in their profession and become active in the community.”

Immigration

The Townhall also examined current immigration statistics of Filipinos and Filipino healthcare workers.  Baby Abella, a nurse manager in the ICU and Telemetry Unit at Oakforest Hospital, found that during the past four decades 1,703,506 have immigrated to the U.S.  A large number of those immigrants were healthcare workers, their spouses and dependants. Abella says the primary reasons behind the immigration was to fill the shortage of nurses and healthcare workers in the U.S. "The demand for foreign nurses will continue for many years to come," said Abella.

Abella also spoke about how foreign policy between the U.S. and the Philippines has caused a fluctuation in the immigration numbers in recent years. There was a noticeable drop in the immigration numbers from the Philippines in 2002 to 2004. That led to a speculation that the War on Terror and the Philippines' pullout from the coalition in Iraq may have indirectly contributed to that sudden drop. She said that other reasons for the decline during those years may also be the result of immigration policy changes out of Washington.

Mary Carmen Madrid-Crost, an attorney who specializes in immigration, believes that one specific policy change made back in May of 2005 in the U.S. Congress will help reverse the decline of Filipino healthcare workers coming to the U.S. "Congress approved 50,000 visas last year to specifically go towards nursing and healthcare," said Madrid-Crost.

While it's believed the Philippines will get a majority of the visas for healthcare, possibly up to 80 percent, other countries are also looking at the quotas as an opportunity for their own people. Several countries, especially in Asia and Latin America, have ramped up their own nursing and healthcare educational programs to compete with the Philippines as a healthcare labor exporter. "Countries such as South Korea and India have been investing heavily in schools that offer nursing programs," said Abella. "They see the field as an opportunity for their citizens to immigrate to the U.S. and other developed nations as nurses."

One other troubling trend that Abella found is that schools in the Philippines are falling behind in their curriculum.  She says some nurses and healthcare workers are failing the proficiency tests they need to be able to work in the U.S.

FACC attorney Al Bascos added that "the Philippines needs to revamp their curriculum to better prepare these nurses for the tests they need to take to enter the United States. Many are failing the English proficiency exam."

Besides improving the curriculum in the Philippines, Madrid-Crost says there is something the Filipino community in Chicago and the U.S. can do immediately to help these nurses and healthcare workers who are struggling with the exam. She suggested people volunteer to tutor these recent immigrants in basic English.

Despite the challenges, Abella says the economic gains keep nurses in Philippines aspiring to work in the U.S.  "Nurses in the Chicago area can make an average of $40,000 a year compared to $2,000 a year in the Philippines," said Abella. "The nurse-to-patient ratio is also relatively small compared to back in the Philippines.  And the professional growth and workplace benefits in the U.S. have also motivated nurses to immigrate."

Elsie Dumlao, a nurse manager at Trinity Hospital, shared her personal immigrant experience at the Townhall. The south suburban nurse was featured in a December 2005 Chicago Tribune series on immigration. She says working here is viewed as paradise compared to the conditions back at home. Dumlao says that was one reason why she chose to leave the comfort of her family and immigrate to Chicago.  That decision has paid off tremendously.  Through the years, Dumlao has sent tens of thousands of dollars back to relatives in the Philippines. Her financial aid helped pay for the college education for her siblings along with some nephews and nieces. She has also shipped hundreds of balikbayan boxes packed with food, clothing and other supplies to her relatives in Ilo Ilo.

The remittances that Dumlao and other healthcare workers send to Philippines totaled more than $8 billion last year. The influx of foreign currency has become one of the main pillars of the Philippine economy. Each year, the remittances from nurses and healthcare workers in the U.S. along with other Overseas Filipino Workers help pull hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty. 

Healthcare Worker Exploitation

While the financial gain may be great compared to working in the Philippines, some healthcare workers are also finding other difficulties when they first arrive. Abella uncovered at least one case of exploitation on the part of a nursing recruiter.  "In this one situation, the recruiter would overcharge the healthcare workers for everything from basic necessities, housing, furniture and transportation," said Abella.  "Some healthcare workers are also living in overcrowded housing conditions."

Sy-Niebar recalled another incident where a group of recently arrived nurses had to "live like cattle" in one home.  "The recruiter took away their passports so they wouldn't leave and forced them to work for low wages," said Neibar. "It's almost like they were being treated like slaves."

Nerissa Nabua, a Certified Nursing Assistant, also pointed to an irony that many healthcare workers who recently arrive from the Philippines are facing.  "Many who work in the home health field have no health insurance for themselves," says Nabua.

Nursing Recruiters

There have also been abuses on the part of nurses and healthcare workers. Healthcare Recruiters Janet Hart, president and CEO of Human Asset Network, Inc. says she had one case where the recruit failed to honor her contract commitments to the company she represented.  "I went to pick her up at O'Hare, and she never showed up!" said Hart. "After all my effort to get her to the U.S., the young woman text messaged me to tell me she was working for her aunt at another hospital."  Hart also talked at length about the problems of "pirating" where another recruiter will literally steal away a nurse from her primary choice for a different hospital or clinic.

During the open mic forum, one male nurse admitted that he abandoned his commitment from his primary recruiter and switched to a second one. He told the crowd that, sometimes, individual nurses were not entirely at fault. He says details of his contract were not thoroughly explained to him and items in the fine print were not very clear.  "I literally received the documents in one packet on the day I was to leave," said the nurse. "Because of the rush and pressure, I really didn't fully comprehend what I was signing."  He adds that economic factors and other benefits from the second recruiter also enticed him to make the switch.

Creating Industry Codes of Conduct

Bascos, an attorney who also negotiates contracts for healthcare workers, says that nurses who do decide to switch and break their contract run the risk of losing their immigration visa.  "If the hospital or recruiter took action against a nurse that switches, that person could eventually be deported back to the Philippines," said Bascos.  He adds that many legitimate recruiters and healthcare facilities spend tens of thousands of dollars to bring Filipino nurses to work in the U.S.  The reason why recruiters and hospitals do not pursue those who break their contract is because they pity the nurses, "kawawa naman sila." Plus, it's expensive to go through the court process, and many recruiters simply cut their losses. Bascos says that because of these abuses, that all could change.

Besides running the risk of being deported, Bascos says their actions can have repercussions on other nurses back in the Philippines trying to immigrate. He cited a case in California where a hospital had recruited 50 nurses from the Philippines.  Many of the hospital's staff and executives had gone to the airport to welcome the new nurses with signs and gifts. When the flight they were supposed to be on arrived, the 50 nurses were not on board.  They had apparently been pirated away in transit by another recruiter.  The California hospital then enacted a policy to no longer recruit nurses from the Philippines. The administrators there have also told other hospitals not to hire nurses from the Philippines, and to look to another country to fill their demand for nurses and healthcare workers.

"Nurses immigrating from the Philippines should honor the two-year contract that they sign," says Bascos. "The two years will go by in no time." He adds that by doing so, they'll help maintain the continuing immigration of nurses and healthcare from the Philippines to the U.S.

Political Empowerment

Nurses and healthcare workers from the Philippines along with their spouses and family eventually achieve U.S. citizenship and the right to vote. That cycle of immigration to citizenship has helped raise the political voice and importance of Filipino Americans. 

James Villar, president of MEDSED, a medical technology company, says Filipinos make up the second largest Asian American group behind the Chinese, but there are few Filipino Americans getting involved in the political process. "Filipino Americans need to exercise their right to vote," says Villar. "They need to become active in the process and let elected officials know what they think."  Villar says the community has the potential to become an important block of votes in an election in the city, county or state. 

"Lawmakers pay special attention to their constituents who are registered voters," said Villar. "In Chicago, if you need some city service, a registered voter will more likely get their requests answered quicker than someone who is not one. If you want to give your congressman or senator an opinion on a bill, they always want to know if you're a registered voter."

Cook County Commissioner Forest Claypool briefly spoke at the Townhall about the importance of Filipino American healthcare workers to the Chicago area. He recognized that they make up a large number of the front line care givers at the Cook County network of hospitals and clinics.  He praised them for their work and contributions on providing quality healthcare to the citizens of Cook County.

Matt DeLeon, the representative of Cook County president John Stroger, spoke about the importance of healthcare to our community. He reinforced the point that the field touches the lives of so many people.  His own wife is a nurse. He, too, stressed the importance of the Filipino American vote. 

Nadja Lalvani, at the Townhall on behalf of State Treasurer Judy Barr Topinka, also recognized her ties to Filipino healthcare workers. "My mother, who is also a nurse, was a member of Jean Paredes' graduating class," said Lalvani. She also stressed the importance of voting in the upcoming elections."Politicians are mostly concerned about two things, votes and money. Of the two, votes are more important."

Advocating for our Community

Gerry Alcantra, who is the host of Pinoy TV, and also works as a medical technician, says Filipino Healthcare workers also need to be more visible and vocal in the workplace, especially when they see something wrong being committed or an injustice taking place. He relayed an incident at his workplace that involved a subtle form of discrimination.  "A manager had placed signs around the bulletin boards that said speak English only.  It was targeted at Filipinos who like to talk in their dialect when their together at work," said Alcantra. But instead of Filipino healthcare workers taking a stand against the insult, another minority group, which thought the signs were aimed at them, complained loudly about it. "By the next day, the placards were gone."

"It's important that we be pro-active, instead of reactive to the plight and issues affecting healthcare workers," said Don Villar, the Townhall Coordinator.  "We need to pay close attention to what's happening in this industry so we can prevent some of the problems that we've talked about today from repeating.  Healthcare workers need to make sure that, when they see something wrong, and it involves a Filipino, they DO NOT look the other way.  In many of the cases we mentioned, there was another person there from our community who may have known what was taking place.  They need -- we need -- to be able to take a stand to prevent these things from happening again."

Villar suggest that community leaders and recruiters work with groups like the FACC, Nurses Associations and the Philippine Consulate in developing a welcoming packet and handbook for newly arrived immigrant healthcare workers. It would include helpful tips and advice.  He would like to create a code of conduct to be given to everyone in the community who works in healthcare. "We, as Filipinos, are supposed to have strong and deeply-rooted cultural values," said Villar. "Some people may need to be reminded of those values of honesty, hard work and family." 

Villar also wants to form an advocate group that can quickly respond to incidents and cases in the future.  The group would be tasked with providing guidance and acting as a single voice. "The Brucal case has shown that we need to take these actions not just because it's the right thing to do, but because Filipino healthcare workers are very important to our community.”