MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has expressed support for the decision of the Senate to implement the recent Supreme Court (SC) ruling upgrading the basic monthly salary of government nurses.
“Nurses here are so exploited they even pay hospitals to be taken on for internship so they can add one more qualification to their resumé for escaping this country to work in decent places in Europe and elsewhere. Thank you Senate,” Locsin said on Twitter.
He was commenting on the statement of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that the Senate, in its version of the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for next year, has included a special provision stating that nurses should have a base pay of P30,531 a month in compliance with the SC decision.
Senators also reportedly realigned some P3 billion for the pay adjustment. Currently, nurses in public hospitals receive P20,754, which means that their compensation would increase by P9,777.
The decision to follow the SC ruling was apparently upon the initiative of Lacson.
The ruling was handed down after five years in a case filed by party-list group Ang Nars in 2015.
The group questioned the downgrading by then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the nurses’ pay from Salary Grade 15 (P30,531) under the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 to Salary Grade 11 (P20,754).
Arroyo reduced the nurses’ legal salary under authority from Congress, which passed Joint Resolution No. 4 in 2009 allowing her to modify compensation and position classification in the bureaucracy.
In its ruling, the SC declared that Salary Grade 15 should be the entry-level pay for government nurses, since a mere joint resolution cannot amend a law.
The ruling is one of several decisions former senior associate justice Antonio Carpio wrote before he retired last month.
Unfortunately for nurses, Ang Nars failed to win a seat in the House of Representatives in last May’s elections.
However, several lawmakers have taken up the cudgels for them and have filed bills restoring their pay to Salary Grade 15. However, the Carpio-written decision has rendered such measures useless.
An increasing number of Filipino nurses are seeking employment in the United States, according to former representative John Bertiz III of party-list group ACTS-OFW.
Between January and September this year, Bertiz said a total of 9,195 Filipino nurses hoping to land jobs in America took the US licensure examination.
“The number is up 30 percent versus the 7,119 Philippine-educated nurses who took America’s eligibility test,” he said.
He welcomed the SC ruling upgrading the salary of government nurses, but said it would not stop migration of nursing personnel.
Bertiz said the P30,531 monthly base pay, when annualized, amounts to P396,903, including the 13th month pay.
“The P396,903 is roughly equal to just 10 percent of the P3.65 million (or $71,730) annual median pay of nurses in America,” he said.