AMID the growing clamor for the lifting of the deployment ban on healthcare workers, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) yesterday advised nurse organizations to instead push for an adjustment in the cutoff date for those exempted from it.
Speaking at an online public forum, POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia said it would be a more feasible request from the nurses sector if they will ask the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to adjust the cutoff date from March 8 to August 31.
“My own personal view, instead of requesting for the lifting, why don’t we just ask for the adjustment of the date of the cutoff. From March 8, let’s make it August 31,” Olalia said.
Olalia said such a proposal would be a fair compromise considering the hard line position of the IATF-EID and President Duterte.
“Let’s take it slow. It would be difficult to catch the IATF by surprise. The IATF is also subservient to the wishes of the President. The President, himself, does not want to (lift the ban),” he also said.
Back in April, the POEA ordered the suspension of the deployment of selected categories of health care workers, including nurses.
The POEA said the deployment ban is necessary to ensure that the country shall continue to have a steady supply of health personnel amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Subsequently, the IATF-EID imposed an exemption to the deployment ban for those with verified employment contracts as of March 8, saying such workers can leave the country for overseas employment.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said such a proposal will have to be studied further as it will depend on the number of healthcare workers that will benefit from the exemption.
“Giving the exemption for those who had completed their papers as of March 8 affected some 600 to 900. So, on my own personal assessment, we can afford to send them away.
But if statistics will show that we will be sending about 50,000 nurses, that will be dangerous,” said Bello in the same public forum.
“We need to see the numbers if we will extend it to August 31 and we will lose only about 2 to 5 thousand, maybe we can convince the IATF to consider the proposal. But if it costs beyond that, it might be difficult,” he added.
The labor chief said there remains the need to point out that the country is still under a national health crisis, wherein healthcare workers are serving in the frontlines.