More nurses allowed to leave

The deployment ban was first implemented in April, as the President said that he wants to keep health workers safe from working in countries with high cases of COVID-19

Medical workers with complete documents like visas and contracts as of 31 August are now allowed to leave the country and work abroad, the Palace announced Monday.

This came after President Rodrigo Duterte approved the proposal of the Department of Labor and Employment to expand the deployment ban exemption on health care professionals which was seen to benefit about 1,500 workers.

Senator Christopher “Bong” Go welcomed the development saying this was done in “consideration of the need of medical professionals to comply with their perfected contracts abroad.”

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, however, said the Chief Executive has yet to decide on the total lifting of the deployment ban.

“No decision yet on total lifting. We just heeded the call of these nurses since they have already spent money for their (documents). Nobody will now complain that they spent money but were barred from going abroad,” Roque said in a Palace briefing.

The Inter-Agency Task

Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases previously allowed healthcare professionals to work abroad if they have existing employment contracts as of 8 March.

Nurses have long appealed for the lifting of the ban, saying that it is the frontliners’ right to seek better salaries overseas.

The deployment ban was first implemented in April, as the President said that he wants to keep health workers safe from working in countries with high cases of COVID-19.

During the earlier months of the pandemic, the President said he was “okay” with the decision of health workers to leave, even if he appealed to them to remain in the country during the coronavirus outbreak.

We just heeded the call of these nurses since they have already spent money for their documents. Nobody will now complain that they spent money but were barred from going abroad.