The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has announced that the government will now be allowing Filipino health workers with existing contracts abroad to leave.
According to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin, Jr., the health workers can fly out of the country despite the enhanced community quarantine
“DONE. NURSES, other health workers with existing contracts of work abroad can leave,” he said in his Twitter post.
Locsin added, however, that future applications will be put on hold until further notice—provided that over 450,000 nurses be given jobs.
Philippine Overseas Employment (POEA) recently issued an order temporarily suspending the deployment of Filipino health care workers abroad, in order to “prioritize human resource allocation” in the country’s healthcare system.
The secretary earlier promised to fight the decision of POEA to issue temporary travel ban on health workers.
“The fight is not over. We will fight the ban in the IATF. We will fight the ban in Cabinet. We will fight shit for brains. We will never surrender our constitutional right to travel and our contractual right to work where there is a need for our work,” he said in his tweet.
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