{"id":251978,"date":"2020-04-14T00:31:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T04:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=251978"},"modified":"2020-04-14T00:31:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T04:31:30","slug":"duterte-okay-with-filipino-nurses-going-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/14\/duterte-okay-with-filipino-nurses-going-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte okay with Filipino nurses going abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with some members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on April 13, 2020. KARL NORMAN ALONZO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte said he could not blame Filipino nurses and other health workers for wanting to work abroad following an increased global demand for them due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) health crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi ko sinisisi, hindi ako galit, wala akong\u00a0<\/em>emotions actually about this. But\u00a0kung gusto ninyong kayong mga<\/em>\u00a0nurse\u00a0na Pilipino gusto ninyong magsilbi sa ibang bayan, sa ibang tao,<\/em>\u00a0okay\u00a0lang sa akin<\/em>\u00a0(I don\u2019t blame them, I\u2019m not angry, I don\u2019t have emotions about this. But if you Filipino nurses wanted to serve the country or other people, it\u2019s okay with me),\u201d he said in a televised meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) late Monday night.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, expressed concern that the country might run out of medical professionals to treat local Covid-19 patients.<\/p>\n

He criticized the US for causing problems by aggressively recruiting nurses instead of relying on their own human resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cDapat kayo umasa sana sa sariling mga tao ninyo. Eh ngayon kinukuha, kinakaltasan mo ang Pilipinas pagdating ng panahon magkulang,<\/em>\u00a0sorry\u00a0na lang tayo<\/em>\u00a0(You should rely on your own people. Now you\u2019re getting them away from the Philippines. If there will be a shortage, we\u2019ll be sorry),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He admitted that it was tempting to work in the US because nurses were paid with higher salaries there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u00a0ngayon nangangailangan kayo ng<\/em>\u00a0nurse, express.\u00a0Kami naman dito nakakabahan kasi wala kaming pangbigay kasing laki<\/em>\u00a0so\u00a0ang mga<\/em>\u00a0nurse\u00a0natin — eh naintindihan ko \u2018yan eh<\/em>\u00a0self-preservation\u00a0\u2018yan<\/em>. So\u00a0kailangan magtrabaho sila. May trabaho ngayon sa Amerika, eh \u2018di nagpupuntahan sila<\/em>\u00a0(Now you need nurses, and we will be the one who will lose them because we cannot give them as much. I understand that is self-preservation. You have to work. They have job offers in the US, so they go there),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte said the US even made it easier for Filipino nurses to secure visas.<\/p>\n

\u201cNananawagan sila basta \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0nurse,\u00a0mga<\/em>\u00a0nurse\u00a0sige punta kayo sa<\/em>\u00a0embassy,\u00a0i<\/em>-process\u00a0nila ang<\/em>\u00a0visa one day,\u00a0kinabukasan lipad ka na<\/em>\u00a0(They are calling on everyone, all nurses, to go process their visa. The next day, they can leave),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Unlike the Philippines, he said China could easily require their citizens to stay in the country by demanding total obedience.<\/p>\n

\u201cDito hindi ko magawa \u2018yan kasi demokrasya, papasok ang<\/em>\u00a0human rights [advocates] (I cannot do that here in the Philippines because of human rights advocates),” he said.<\/p>\n

He also bared that the IATF-EID expressed hope that not all Filipino nurses would leave the country amid the rising number of cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no end in sight,\u00a0anong katapusan nito<\/em>\u00a0(how this will end),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As of Monday (April 12), there are 4,932 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country and 315 deaths.<\/p>\n

Globally, there are at least 1.8 million confirmed cases and 116,000 fatalities.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, the US surpassed Italy as the country with the highest reported Covid-19 death toll, recording more than 20,000 deaths since the outbreak began.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the IATF-EID has recommended the lifting of the temporary deployment ban on Filipino health workers with existing contracts abroad.<\/p>\n

He said the resolution is subject to Duterte’s approval, but “foregone conclusion” since he has never disapproved of any recommendation made by the IATF.<\/p>\n

Early this month, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) issued Resolution No. 09, temporarily suspending the deployment of all health care workers “until the national state of emergency is lifted and until Covid 19-related travel restrictions are lifted at the destination countries”.<\/p>\n

The order was issued to ensure that the country has enough health workers amid the public health emergency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte said he could not blame Filipino nurses and other health workers for wanting to work abroad …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":251979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251980,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251978\/revisions\/251980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}