The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) expressed disapproval on the total lifting of the deployment ban of healthcare workers in the country amid the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III explained that the country might suffer if it loses more local medical professionals if the pandemic situation worsens.
The Philippine Nurses Association earlier appealed to the government to lift the said ban on health professionals amid the pandemic.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte the revisions on the deployment ban of health workers for those with perfected contracts as of August 31.
“Kung i-approve ng ating Pangulo Iyon, hindi naman substantial ‘yung number of nurses na mapapadala natin, at most 1,200. Yung una, ‘yung March 8, we were expecting about 900 to be deployed pero lumabas 600 ang naka-list (If the President approves it, the number of nurses to be sent abroad will not be substantial, at most 1,200. As for the March 8 batch, we were expecting about 900 to be deployed but only 600 were listed),” Bello stated.
“So heto, we are expecting 1,200 pero I doubt very much kung mapapa-deploy rin natin’ ‘yung ganyang number of medical workers (So here we are expecting 1,200 but I very much doubt if we can deploy that number of medical workers),” Bello added. – Report from Rocky Lesigues
