Duterte allows more nurses, health workers to go abroad

MANILA: President Duterte has lifted the ban and allowed more health workers including nurses and doctors to leave and work abroad which could benefit about 1,500 of them, his spokesman reported on Monday.

“The president has listened to the grievances of the nurses. Those with complete documents as of Aug 31 (this year) have been allowed to leave for their work abroad,” Roque said in Filipino in a virtual press briefing.

Roque cited a labour department report that about 1,500 such health workers would benefit from the lifting of the ban but administration Senator Joel Villanueva said the number could reach as high as 2,000.

Also expected to benefit from the ban are microbiologists, molecular microbiologists, clinical analysts, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, repairmen of medical-hospital equipment as well as x-ray/radiologic technicians and the like.

Before the lifting, only health workers with overseas employment certificates issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and with legal contracts as of March 8 have been allowed to work abroad.

But thousands of those affected particularly the nurses, have protested the ban, saying they had spent thousands of pesos to for their employment certificates as well as their visas which were about to expire.

Many of such workers especially the health frontliners have opted to work abroad, complaining of low wages and poor working conditions in the country’s campaign to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

As the COVID-19 infections increased, the government, through the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, banned the deployment of frontline health workers.

The government has appealed to their sense of nationalism and patriotism by staying in the country so they could join in the campaign against the pandemic instead of going abroad to work.

But organisations of nurses accused the government, especially the Department of Health, of allegedly reneging in its commitment to grant them salary increases and additional benefits like allowances so they could stay in the country.

They also said the ban violated their constitutional right to go abroad and work, a stand which has been supported by the country’s outspoken Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin, who is also a lawyer.