Press Release
June 18, 2009

Pia: SSL3 won't stop exodus of government doctors, nurses and teachers

Senator Pia S. Cayetano today said the mass exodus of government doctors, nurses and public school teachers will likely continue in the coming years despite the signing into law of the 'Salary Standardization Law III' (SSL-3) by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday.

"While I laud the objective of this new law to hike the pay of all government personnel, I don't think enough effort was exerted to address the plight of our medical professionals and teachers, many of whom are driven away by low pay and unrewarding employment conditions in government service, forcing them instead to work abroad as overseas contract workers."

Cayetano, who represented the Senate minority bloc at the bicameral conference committee that deliberated on the measure, had strongly lobbied for higher salary entry levels for government nurses and teachers, which she described as the most undervalued professions in the civil service.

Illustrating how the issue of low salaries is hurting the public health system, she cited the recent case of the 18 government doctors who decided to quit their jobs at the JR Borja Hospital in Cagayan De Oro City, reportedly over low pay, long working hours and lack of facilities and medicines.

"News about government doctors quitting their jobs to transfer to private hospitals or work as nurses abroad are indeed disheartening and an added burden to the bleeding of our health human resources," she lamented.

She said SSL-3 merely grants a P6,500-pay increase to the country's 450,000 public school teachers staggered over the next four years, while the basic pay of nurses will only increase to P18,088/month from the current P12,026/month over the same period, or until 2013.

The pay hike for nurses, she explained, is much lower than what was originally mandated under the unimplemented Nursing Act of 2002 (RA 9173), which pegged the starting position of all government nurses at Salary Grade 15 or a basic pay of P25,067 per month. Government teachers were envisioned to receive P9,000-increase in the next three years under SB 2409 which the Senate passed in July last year, but this already been negated and overtaken with the enactment of SSL-3.

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