End contractualization, 200 Baguio nurses urge Duterte

BAGUIO CITY—Ron Mejia, 22, a nurse at Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, ended his shift at 7 a.m. and proceeded to join over 200 nurses and nursing students who marched on May 12 to urge presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte to end labor contractualization.

The nurses paraded down Session Road here, part of the activities of this year’s International Nurses Day.

With the change in the country’s leadership, the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing Schools also challenged incumbent lawmakers to pass the proposed Nursing Law. “They still have until June 30 to pass the Nursing Law and address the need for higher salary and job security for nurses,” said Mary Grace Lacanaria, the group’s national vice president.

Lacanaria said nurses were indispensable members of the health care service.

According to Mejia, he serves BGHMC as a job-order employee, and does not receive benefits, nor overtime and hazard pay. “My work load is no different from my regular counterparts but I do not receive the same benefits as them,” he said.

“I worked in a call center while waiting for any opening for nurses in the city … My pay at the call center was way higher than what I am receiving now,” Mejia said.

Ruth Thelma P. Tingda, Cordillera governor of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA), said government should raise the salary of nurses.

“We have seen on the news about the increase in the salary of our policemen and I can’t help but ask: How about nurses, do they not deserve a raise too?” she said.