Press Release
August 22, 2007

Pia: Make bilateral deals work for, not against, our medical professionals

The promised benefits to Filipino nurses under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) may be more imagined than real.

This was the assessment of Senator Pia S. Cayetano, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, after consulting with the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA), which has opposed ratification of JPEPA despite government claims that the deal will allow access to the highly protected Japanese health care system.

The 47,000-strong PNA was among the sectors represented at the JPEPA Roundtable Forum that Cayetano co-sponsored last week with academicians and non-government organizations.

"The restrictive standards set by Japan tend to discourage and effectively bar Filipino nurses from entering Japan's healthcare industry. They won't be accorded national treatment or equal protection, unlike in other bilateral deals with similar features. In contrast, JPEPA sets requirements that might be too rigid for our nurses," she pointed out.

Citing from the statements of the PNA, Cayetano said a Filipino nurse would be required to undergo six months of language training before being allowed to work as a nursing trainee under the supervision of a Japanese nurse.

But even that won't guarantee that the Filipino nurse would get the equivalent work status of a Japanese nurse, because he or she still has to hurdle the Japanese nursing board exam which is entirely written in Nihongo.

In the event that the Filipino nurse fails the board exams, his or her working visa may only be extended twice or only up to three years, she added.

She shared PNA's concern that unsuccessful Filipino nurses in Japan could end up as caregivers, or worse, driven into prostitution.

Cayetano said the Philippines needs to exert more efforts to make bilateral agreements like JPEPA work for, and not against, our medical professionals and the domestic health sector.

Other countries were able to ask for better terms for their medical workers in their bilateral deals, according to the PNA:

� In the case of South Africa and United Kingdom, the latter agreed to educate three doctors and three nurses for every South African doctor and nurse who will be recruited to work in the UK. Additionally, the UK will improve ten nursing schools, particularly in upgrading its laboratories and facilities.

� In the case of Poland and Netherlands, Poland sends 3,000 nurses annually to Netherlands and work there for three years, after which they will return to their home country and given higher salaries subsidized by the Dutch government.

Cayetano has supported the proposal of former Health Secretary Dr. Jaime Galvez-Tan to make "Health Facility Partnership Agreements" a permanent feature in any bilateral deal signed by the Philippines with an industrialized country that takes in our medical professionals.

The proposal was one of the recommendations in the report submitted last year by the Senate Health Committee on the issue of migration of medical professionals during the 13th Congress.

"The proposal is meant to enjoin the country hosting our doctors and nurses to provide for official development assistance for the improvement of our health institutions and professionals. This could come in the form of training and scholarship grants and financial assistance to improve services and facilities in public hospitals," she explained.

"That way, we will get something concrete in return, like better public hospital facilities, in exchange for the thousands of doctors and nurses they take away every year," she added.

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