'Send to jail Lorna Tolentino's employer'

By Alex P. Vidal

ROSEMARIE ALCANTARA

                                         
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — If reports were true that cancer patient Lorna Tolentino did not have any insurance and she died a pauper, authorities should investigate the matter and file proper charges against those responsible for her employment as nanny and caregiver, including her employer if evidence warrants, suggested a community leader who requested anonymity.
According to Philippine Consul General Jose Ampeso, Tolentino’s former employer has refused to cooperate with members of media and other authorities concerned and insisted Tolentino’s case is a private matter.
Due to unknown reasons, some officials of the Filipino community previously vocal and freely giving media interviews, have now refused to comment about Tolentino’s case.
“It seems they chickened out,” a source informed us recently. “All of a sudden, they shut and zippered their mouths at a time when the caregiver and nanny community was looking for leaders that would pick up their cudgels and bring to light the sad plight of some nannies and caregivers who are in danger of being exploited; in danger of suffering the predicament of Lorna Tolentino.”


‘NO COMMENT’


“No comment na ako dyan (I will not comment anymore),” quipped Tomas Avendano, president of the Multicultural Helping House Society (MHHS), who earlier disclosed they could only give $200 to Tolentino’s family from the MHHS’s social fund.
Ampeso said it was cheaper to cremate Tolentino’s body than shipped the cadaver to her town in San Miguel, Bulacan. The cremation was pushed through in Burnaby last January 7 after Tolentino’s sister failed to arrive after her visa had been denied in Manila.
The consul general said Dr. Dan Vargas, of the Canadian Medical Mission Society (CMMS), will bring Tolentino’s ashes to the Philippines to be turned over to her family on February 3.
All caregivers and nannies working in Canada must have health insurance, according to one of the nurses who took care of the 39-year-old Tolention who died of cervical cancer last New Year after being confined in the hospital and transferred to the hospice for several months last year.
Rosemarie Alcantara, the nurse who attended to Tolentino when the patient was still confined in the surgical ward, suggested that caregivers and nannies should secure insurance if their employers can’t provide it.


TERM


“Kahit term insurance lang of let say $35 per month good for 10 years. By all means, all health workers must have proper insurance for their protection,” she said. Alcantara narrated that even Tolentino herself did not have idea she had cancer. Tolentino informed her that while she was cooking, she suddenly fell on the floor. Her boss was not around. It was when she was brought in the hospital that doctors diagnosed she had terminal cancer.
“Most of us are afraid of general check up because it could give us stress if doctors found out something was wrong with our health,” quipped Alcantara, who has been nurse in the Burnaby hospital for six years.
Alcantara said she made Tolentino laugh every time she visited her. “That’s what she needed — a lot of smile. I knew she wouldn’t last long. She even told me, ‘ate pagnakita kita masayang masaya ako dahil pinapatawa mo ako palagi,’” recalled Alcantara. “I did not want to see her in a sad moment. As much as possible I gave her words of encouragement.”
Alcantara and her fellow nurses would always buy Tolentino Filipino foods like monggo and palabok from “Kusina Manila” restaurant “but she could not eat them all. She was always aware of her fate. God bless her soul.”