Nurse’s charges vs 2 Makati Med docs ‘suspect’

Two Makati Medical Center (MMC) doctors accused of maltreating a nurse and violating labor laws denied the charges yesterday.

Doctors Martin and Maria Regina Manahan are preparing to face a P4.8-million damage suit filed by Caroline Filomeno before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).

They have engaged the services of lawyer Sigfried Fortun to go against former assemblyman Homobono Adaza, who is representing Filomeno. Fortun is the elder brother of lawyer Raymund Fortun, who recently accused Adaza of planning a coup d’etat with four former military officials.

Filomeno said she had not been paid benefits during her 14-year employment as a nurse and secretary.

She also said the Manahans allegedly violated labor laws and their oath as doctors when they forced her to work when typhoon “Milenyo” hit Metro Manila on Sept. 28, 2006. She was then seven months pregnant.

Fortun told The STAR Filomeno filed the charges two years after “being supposedly employed by the Manahans. The timing is a little bit suspect as they are being groomed for department chairmanship (at the MMC).”

The belated charges, he explained, becomes even more suspicious because Filomeno has been gathering information from the hospital’s records section only recently.

As for not being paid benefits, Fortun said Filomeno “was not really an employee… I don’t think she even has employment papers.” He said Filomeno was originally a caregiver for the respondents’ father, and was subsequently taken in as a secretary to help at the Manahan clinic.

He also denied Filomeno’s allegations of maltreatment, saying that her claims of being forced to work at the height of a powerful storm in 2006 is “impossible.”

“The Manahans didn’t even have clinic that day because the MMC did not have power. The entire Makati was out of power for three to four days,” Fortun said.

He said somebody is probably supporting the complainant since she filed the suit at “peculiar hours and time of the day” while there is an ongoing evaluation of the MMC for an accreditation process.

Fortun said his clients do not plan to countersue because “all we need to do is disprove her claim.”     – Michael Punongbayan