MANILA (UCAN): Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, was urged to lift a flight ban on Filipino on doctors, nurses and medical staff so that they can work abroad and provide for their families.
Duterte banned health professionals from leaving the Philippines in April due to a scarcity of health workers in the country.
However, Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga and retired Bishop Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon, said the ban added to the suffering of their families whose sources of income have been depleted due to mass layoffs.
“These OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) are the breadwinners of their families. They also spent huge amounts of money for their training and schooling … Now, they cannot earn for their families,” Bishop Bastes said in a statement.
However, presidential spokesperson, Harry Roque, insisted, “We need more health workers now. We cannot export what we do not have,” Roque said on national television.
Bishop Bastes noted that the flight ban may have been necessary before but this was no longer the case because conditions had changed.
“When the pandemic started, we did not know how to proceed. But now it’s clear that the problem is not a lack of health workers, it’s a lack of medical facilities and equipment. We need more hospital beds and ventilators, rather than doctors and nurses,” the bishop said.
He called the travel restriction is “unreasonable” and “uncharitable” for the children of overseas workers.
“Banning them (health workers) from working abroad is not a solution. Having a clear policy in handling the pandemic is the solution and it is certainly not to stop our medical professionals leaving the Philippines,” Bishop Bastes added.
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More than 2.8 million Filipinos have lost their jobs due to mass retrenchment, according to government figures.
Meanwhile, 8,000 to 10,000 overseas workers were being laid off each month by foreign companies due to the fallout from the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemeic, according to assistant labour secretary, Dominique Tutay.
Bishop Santos said preventing qualified health workers leaving the country contributed to the number of unemployed professionals.
“To provide what they need and to promote better working conditions are the answers. To prohibit them from leaving the country despite having job offers means adding to the number of jobless Filipinos,” he said.
