Sara Duterte wants healthcare workers’ pay, benefits to be competitive with overseas rates

BATANGAS CITY, Philippines — The pay and benefits received by healthcare workers should be more competitive so that they will no longer leave the country for better opportunities abroad, vice presidential candidate Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio said Wednesday.

Addressing nurses and medical frontliners in Batangas City, Duterte-Carpio said that many healthcare workers opt to work abroad due to higher pay and better benefits offered there.

“Number one, the compensation. Pangalawa the benefits and the other pay para sa ating mga healthcare workers should be competitive sa sweldo doon sa abroad or sa overseas so that our healthcare workers decide to stay with their families and work for our country instead of working abroad away from their families because of the higher pay and benefits that they get from other offers from overseas,” Duterte-Carpio said.

(Number one, the compensation. Secondly, the benefits and other pay for our healthcare workers should be competitive with the salary abroad so that our our healthcare workers decide to stay with their families and work for our country instead of working abroad away from their families because of the higher pay and benefits that they get from other offers from overseas.)

Duterte-Carpio said pushing for higher pay and better benefits for health workers, as well as the slow implementation of the Universal Healthcare Law, are two “big issues” in the healthcare sector that have to be addressed in the coming years.

In her speech, Duterte-Carpio, who took up Bachelor of Science in Respiratory Therapy in college, said it was “frustrating” for her to not be in the frontlines during the surge of the coronavirus pandemic.

“In fact noon kasagsagan ng COVID-19 pandemic doon ko na-feel na I should have pursued my medical degree (In fact, during the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, that’s when I felt that I should have pursued my medical degree),” Duterte-Carpio said.

“Because at the point when I was waiting for the results of the bar, I was already thinking of going back to medical school. But hindi ako in-encourage ng family members ko,” she added.

(Because at the point when I was waiting for the results of the bar, I was already thinking of going back to medical school. But my family did not encourage me.)

Duterte-Carpio said she instead did volunteer work at Davao del Norte Regional Medical Center.

“What I did was volunteer as a respiratory therapist. Doon nako nag-volunteer sa kapitbahay namin, hindi sa Davao City because if I volunteer in Davao City, in hospitals in Davao City then they will always see me as the mayor,” she said.

(What I did was volunteer as a respiratory therapist. I did not volunteer in Davao City because if I volunteer in hospitals in Davao City, then they will always see me as the mayor.)

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