Solon Pushes Government to Improve Pay and Benefits for Health Workers

Senator Joel Villanueva appealed to the government on Saturday, November 21, to improve the salary and benefits for the Philippines’ health workers amid the recent lifting of the deployment ban on medical employees. 

Villanueva stated, “While we welcome the lifting of the deployment ban on healthcare workers, we see this as a reminder for our government to continue raising the standards of compensation for them.”

Earlier this year, the government took measures to prohibit health workers from leaving the Philippines to ensure the country would have enough workforce to fight the rise of  COVID-19 cases. 

The President also reasoned that the measure was taken to protect the citizens from contracting the virus elsewhere. 

Additionally, the government announced that health workers who possess travel documents before March 8 are permitted to leave the country and seek employment overseas. 

Villanueva also added that “As we have said before when we called for the lifting of the ban early on, the most effective way to make our healthcare workers stay and work in our country is to offer better employment terms including competitive salary and benefits, and its timely payout.”

The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases recommended the lifting of the deployment ban last week. 

According to the IATF resolution, a limit of 5,000 health workers are only permitted to leave the country every year to ensure a steady number of medical professionals left in the Philippines. The cap is less than half of the 13,000 medical professionals who were permitted to seek employment abroad in the previous years.