IATF wants health workers’ deployment ban lifted

MANILA, Philippines — The government policymaking body on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has recommended the lifting of the deployment ban on health workers abroad after some sectors claimed that the policy would violate rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases issued a resolution reconsidering the deployment ban in its meeting yesterday. 

“(The IATF) reconsidered the policy on the travel ban on health workers. Those with existing perfected employment contracts will be able to leave,” Panelo said in a text message.  

Panelo said the IATF resolution is still subject to the approval of President Duterte but noted that the Chief Executive has not disapproved any recommendation made by the body. 

“He (Duterte) stated in one of his televised message to the nation that he defers to the recommendation of the IATF,” the chief legal adviser said. 

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) defended its decision to temporarily suspend the deployment of Filipino healthcare workers abroad despite strong objection from recruitment and overseas Filipino workers’ support groups.

POEA chief Bernard Olalia said the country is facing a possible shortage of healthcare workers and thus the agency opted to suspend deployment as a precautionary measure.

“We have now dwindling stocks considering the doctors and nurses are being quarantined in our medical facilities. We wanted our healthcare workers to stay put and avail of the government support while they are here. This measure is temporary and will be lifted once the national health emergency is over,” Olalia said. 

“We all know that we are in state of national health emergency so we have to prioritize national survival than one’s right to travel. We have to act for the national interest,” Olalia added.

Yesterday, Olalia met with the IATF to justify the issuance of a POEA order suspending the deployment of 14 categories of healthcare professionals considered as critical skills.

But recruitment consultant Manny Geslani said the suspension of deployment of health workers was unjust as it prevents them from fulfilling their employment contracts.

He said the government’s offer of cash assistance to health workers can be considered

“crumbs” compared to the salary they are receiving abroad.

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said the temporary deployment ban of healthcare workers abroad should only cover newly hired workers.

CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) vice chairman Bataan Bishop Ruperto Santos yesterday said the suspension of deployment should only cover those who would be starting their jobs as healthcare workers abroad, since they may be given work in the country.

Healthcare workers with existing contracts should be allowed to return to their work abroad, and remain in good standing with their employers.

“There should be temporary suspension for the new Filipino healthcare workers. We need them here, and there are jobs here. But for those who have previous contracts and employments, they should be allowed to continue and be deployed abroad. Existing contracts should be honored,” said Bishop Santos. 

He added that those who have previous contracts are also needed in other countries where they are employed. 

They have become “now our contribution for care, healing and cure to the world affected by this COVID-19 (coronavirus 2019) pandemic,” he added.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) ordered the suspension of the deployment of healthcare workers abroad and instead work in the country to augment the shortage of hospital staff as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase.

The IATF was scheduled to discuss and review the deployment ban on healthcare workers yesterday. 

Geslani said the POEA has unjustly prevented Filipino nurses to return to their jobs in the United Kingdom by passing a resolution stopping their deployment to the UK.

The resolution was intended to stop all healthcare workers from leaving the country to prevent the shortage of frontliners in local hospitals.

Geslani said the resolution is grossly unfair to healthcare workers that prevents them from fulfilling their contracts or commitments abroad whether in the USA, UK, Germany or the Middle East. In the UK around 40,000 Filipino nurses have been working and living there for the past 20 years.

The POEA had urged the nurses to participate in the AKAP program wherein the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will give them P10,000 while they are stranded here for the duration of the COVID crisis.

The workers rejected the OWWA offer, saying it was an insult to veteran nurses who are paid 24,000 British pounds or P1.5 million a year that no hospital in the country could match.

Before they became registered nurses in the UK or even step on British soil, Filipino nurses have to pass a language test and a computer based examination.

Many Filipino nurses already have families in the UK, having qualified as permanent residents and in five years they could apply for British citizenship.

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