NCOV HOLDING AREA / FEBRUARY 5, 2020
Nurses wearing protective gears prepare the holding area for possible case of novel coronavirus at Ospital ng Paranaque along Quirino Avenue in Paranaque City. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines — Nurses will let nationalism prevail in them amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and health workers deployment ban, Malacañang said Thursday.
“Sa tingin ko po, sa panahon ng pandemya, mananaig naman ang nasyonalismo sa puso at damdamin ng ating mga nurses,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in an online briefing.
(I think in times of a pandemic, nationalism will prevail in our nurses.)
Roque also expressed hope that the health workers’ love for their families will make them stay instead of work overseas.
“Ang sumatutal dyan e kahit pa mangibang bansa ang ating mga health workers, may iiwan silang mga mahal sa buhay dito at sana po yun din ang maisip ng mga health professionals, na wala namang mag-aattend sa mga pamilya nila dito pag kailangan ng mga health workers, dun po sana manaig sa kanilang mga damdamin,” he said.
(Even if our health workers go abroad, they will have families who will be left here. I hope they will think of them, that there will be no health workers to attend to their families.)
The Palace official highlighted the salary increase for government health workers under the Salary Standardization Law.
While there are differences between government and private health workers’ salaries, Roque said benefits included under the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or the Bayanihan 2 bill will include the latter.
“Gayunpaman, sa ilalim ng Bayanihan 2, hingi po ng administrasyong Duterte na magbigay po ng parang hazard allowance sa lahat po ng mga nurses lalong lalo na sa pribadong sektor kung saan mas mababa nga yung kanilang mga sahod. Nagbibigay tayo ng iba pang incentives gaya ng housing at free testing,” Roque said.
(Under the Bayanihan 2, the Duterte administration appealed for hazard allowance to all nurses especially those from the private sector whose salaries are lower. Other incentives are also given like housing and free testing.)
Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases will discuss Thursday afternoon whether there will be exemption for health workers who already processed their papers for working abroad.
Earlier, Roque said the government might only lift the deployment ban on health workers once the pandemic is over.