Will we accept licensed practical nurses?

While the problems of the June examinees of Nursing are far from over unless they bite the bullet and take another exam, this time from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the other still unresolved issue about nursing is about the so-called License Practical Nurse (LPN) or through its other name, License Vocational Nurse (LVN). However, LPN has yet to be recognized by the Nursing Board in this country simply because the Nursing Board could not take this issue up because their hands were too full when that exam leak exploded in their faces.

But there is no denying that LPNs are growing in number especially in the United States because it addresses their severe nursing shortage as these only 15-month courses. We were one of the first columnists to have written about the LPN because I had a guest twice on my TV talkshow, Mr. Gregory Howard, who is the national president of the LPN in the US. Just a couple of weeks ago, he was also interviewed on Channel News Asia, batting for the acceptance of LPN in the other parts of Asia.

As Mr. Howard told me on our show, in a squad of soldiers, not everyone is a sergeant… everyone else is a corporal or a private and they are led by a sergeant. He says that the same is true in running a hospital. However, all the nurses we send abroad are registered nurses. But because of the shortage of nurses, RN’s are doing the job that LPN’s can do for lesser cost. Thus between hiring an RN or an LPN, Mr. Howard says that they’d be more willing to accept LPN as they are paid lower salaries. This is more than enough motivation for the Philippine government to look into LPN’s more seriously, not just for the nurses we send abroad, but also because we also suffer a nursing shortage right here at home.

Today there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel when I got a press statement from the Office of the President through Assistant Secretary Johnfer Batara dated Feb.24, 2007. The press statement shows that those advocating for LPN have been heard in the halls of Malacañang. The Arroyo administration points out that employment of millions of Filipinos is one of the major programs of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA). Thus LPN provides more opportunities since the nursing students who are undergraduates and under a board opens new opportunities to be a licensed practical nurse and thus give them an opportunity to work here or abroad.

Malacañang also recognizes that LPNs will strengthen the health care system of this country if and when it is recognized as they can be employed in hospitals or serve as barangay health workers. Recognizing the LPNs would also mean that we could send more nurses abroad faster and expect a boost in the remittances that Filipino workers send home.

Towards this end, the Overseas Employment Agency (OEA) will convene a workshop on the use of LPNs in this country to be participated by all stakeholders in government and private institutions and come up with concrete recommendations to be submitted to President Arroyo for approval. At this point, at least we can say that in our own way, this corner contributed to the up and coming recognition of LPNs in this country… as it is already recognized in many parts of the United States like in the States of Alabama and Louisiana. Soon, other countries would accept the need for LPNs especially in nursing homes or health care centers.

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Remember the bribery scandal involving Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo "Boy" Radaza that we wrote the other week? This was the expose’ of Mr. Richard King, owner of Crowne Regency Hotel who now has filed a P50 million suit against Radaza for destroying a foreshore leased property that he purchased from Mr. Ben Ebrada a few years ago.

I had a long talk with Mr. Ebrada and he gave me a lot of details and a lot of questions begging for answers. For instance, Mr. Ebrada asks "Can a Foreshore Lease Application (FLA) duly approved and given an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) be immediately destroyed for lack of a Mayor’s permit?" He showed me that his property did have a mayor’s permit signed by Radaza himself, but then these permits are good only for a year. There’s no doubt that an ECC is the most difficult to secure compared to a mayor’s permit.

However, but that’s not what’s bothering Mr. Ebrada. Although he is no longer the owner of the property in question (as he already sold it to Mr. King,) Mayor Radaza served him a demolition order dated Feb.9, 2007 which was a Friday. In our experience, demolition orders are more often than not never acted on the date the order is served. But Mayor Radaza couldn’t wait. His henchmen destroyed this property in just three days, which entailed government men working on the weekend!

Thus Mr. Ebrada asks… why the extreme haste by Mayor Radaza in destroying the property he once owned? The property in question is a mere 9,617 sq/mtrs. Yet Mr. Ebrada showed me the map of the Agus Lagoon and a list of the other Foreshore Lease Applicants (FLA), which are larger than his. 37,916 sq/mtrs by Leopolda Cesilio and another property by the same person for 27,675 sq/mtrs. Then there’s the 18,400 sq/mtrs property of Cesilio’s daughter applied for a beach home. Another daughter owns a 29,400 sq/mtrs property also for a beach house. There’s more, but we can’t put them all here due to lack of space.

What’s very disturbing for Mr. Ebrada is that, the property that Mayor Radaza had so quickly destroyed had complete documents from the DENR, including a previous mayor’s permit signed by the Mayor. Yet he says that the properties that we mentioned here do not even have an ECC… so Mr. Ebrada asks… "Why weren’t these FLA’s not destroyed?" Mr. Ebrada suggests that the Cesilio foreshore leases are clearly "protected" by Mayor Radaza, perhaps because they are classmates in the cockpit?

Even more disturbing or distressing is the fact that until today, the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas hasn’t issued any official statement as to what they intend to do with Mayor Radaza. If you ask me, the least they can do is put this very destructive mayor under preventive suspension and I’m sure more victims of Radaza would surface.

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>People ask why only a few showed up during the commemoration of the EDSA Revolt. Is it because corruption today is still endemic and justice seems only a tool for the rich and powerful, while it is the poor and the powerless who took to the streets in the last 21-years demanding to get justice but almost always get nothing but deafening silence!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8:00 in the evening.