Finally, a bill for nurses' just compensation

It is no secret that some congressmen currently involved in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona have higher political ambitions and are using public exposure in the course of the trial to boost their chances in a possible run for the Senate in 2013. 

 Some, however, are simply better than the others. For while some appear to have chosen to sink or swim on the basis of the roles they currently play in the impeachment trial, others have decided to do more outside the trial. 

 One such congressman is Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, the son and namesake of his incumbent senator father. Perhaps Rep. Angara realized he needs to do more if he has to make the Senate, considering that his father is on the way out, being on his second and last six-year term. 

 Rep. Angara has chosen to do what he has been elected to do, which is to legislate, rather than just rely on the public exposure he can gain while acting as one of the spokesmen for the House prosecution panel in the impeachment trial. 

 And Rep. Angara did not choose just any piece of legislation. He picked one that he knew was certain to sit well with a large segment of the population. More importantly, his proposed legislation will seek to correct a long-overlooked injustice in Philippine society. 

 In House Bill 5780, Rep. Angara seeks to double or even triple the basic monthly salary of Filipino nurses currently working in government and private hospitals. From the P5,000-P7,000 salary range that Filipino nurses are being paid, Rep. Angara wants to raise it to P14,000. 

 No words can probably best describe the sense of justice that this bill can do for the tens of thousands of long suffering nurses who, for the kind of work that they do, and the great risk to their lives while doing it, have never really merited recognition by just compensation.

 Nurses are among the lowest paid professionals in the country. They earn only slightly better than maids, many of whom have not even graduated from high school. Certainly, nurses earn so much less than jeepney drivers. 

 And yet, next to doctors, it is to nurses that people entrust their health issues. For such an important and sensitive kind of work, it is only right, proper and fair that nurses get compensated better than what they are currently getting. 

 Aside from finally recognizing the nurses for what they are truly worth, there are other considerations why the bill of Rep. Angara should pass both houses of Congress and be signed into law at the soonest time possible. 

 It is not easy to earn a Nursing degree, both academically and financially. Nursing is one of the hardest courses to take, one that requires great mental and physical ability. And because many schools cashed in on the Nursing boom, it now costs a fortune to take up Nursing. 

 Yet, for all the academic challenges and financial sacrifices that nurses have to put up with to earn their degrees and obtain their licenses, the best that this showcase of democracy and only Christian country in Asia can offer its nurses is P5,000 a month? What a shame. 

 The Angara bill, if passed into law, may also help persuade jobless nurses to find employment locally, rather than find employment overseas, often in callings other than the one for which they trained extensively for. 

 If passed, the Angara bill will give dignity back to a very noble calling. And it can help Angara get elected to the Senate, as well as boost the political stocks of those who may choose to support the bill both in the House of Representatives and the Senate. 

Even President Aquino can earn tremendous political goodwill if he eggs his allies in both houses of Congress to help the nurses’ compensation bill through as quickly as possible, so that he himself can also sign it into law. In its own way, it can be a landmark law of sorts.