Bello ‘inclined to agree’ to lift foreign deployment cap on medical technologists

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III (File photo by GRIC C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines —Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said on Tuesday is open to exempting medical technologists from the foreign deployment cap on health workers.

He has not received, however, any formal request for such an exemption, he said in an online briefing on Wednesday.

“But if I receive a request for that purpose, I am inclined to agree with the med techs that they can be exempted from the deployment cap,” he said, speaking partly in Filipino.

Earlier, the Philippine Association of Medical Technologists (PAMET) called for the exemption of medical technologists bound for the United States from the deployment cap, pointing out that the US needed as many as 110,000 medical technologists.

Bello remained firm, however, on retaining the overseas deployment cap on doctors.

“It would be difficult for us to lose doctors. We have to be very sure that we would not run out of nurses and doctors,” he said.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) suspended the deployment of healthcare workers this month after the quota of 5,000 had been reached.

A temporary deployment cap was also imposed last year to ensure that the country will not run out of medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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