House Assistant Majority Leader and Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta party-list Rep. Margarita Nograles (File photo)
MANILA – House Assistant Majority Leader and Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA) party-list Rep. Margarita Nograles on Tuesday called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to immediately act against “ambulance-chasing labor lawyers” who are targeting maritime manning companies.
She said these unscrupulous lawyers keep on exploiting seafarers to squeeze money from legitimate maritime manning agencies by convincing accident victims or their families to file injury lawsuits or other claims which, in most cases, benefit them more instead of the victims.
Nograles said the country’s maritime sector has been under attack by these ambulance chasers and it’s about time to put a stop to these unlawful activities.
“These lawyers who are into this racket would seek out seafarers and offer them legal help so that they can harass maritime manning companies with civil suits,” she said.
Nograles noted that the Association of Licensed Manning Agencies (ALMA) Maritime Group has called on the labor department to exercise political will to address the exploitation of the seafarers' compensation system by these ambulance-chasing lawyers.
The group of 71 manning agencies deploying around 174,000 Filipino seafarers at any given time has warned that unchecked ambulance chasing for money claims has become the biggest threat to the employability of potentially 400,000 seafarers, both officers and non-officers ratings.
“The DOLE and other pertinent agencies like the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and the Maritime Industry Authority (MIA) should exercise their authority to stop this practice,” said Nograles who is also a lawyer.
She said under Republic Act 10706, also known as the Seafarers Protection Act, it “shall be unlawful for any person to engage in ambulance chasing or the act of soliciting, personally or through an agent, from seafarers, or their heirs, the pursuit of any claim against them employers for the purpose of recovery of monetary claim or benefit, including legal interest, arising from accident, illness or death, in exchange of an amount or fee which shall be retained or deducted from the monetary claim or benefit granted to or awarded to the seafarers or their heirs.”
Any person who is found guilty of ambulance chasing can be slapped with a fine of not less than PHP50,000 but not more than PHP100,000, or with an imprisonment of one year but not more than two years, or both fine and imprisonment.
In November last year, Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo met with the DMW officials, led by Secretary Susan Ople, and assured them of prompt legal action against predatory legal counsels engaged in ambulance chasing. (PNA)
