Sinanla mga nars? Minority lawmakers split on Bello’s tradeoff offer for COVID-19 vaccines

By Billy Begas

Members of the House of Representatives were divided on the statement of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III requesting COVID-19 vaccines from the United Kingdom and Germany in exchange for exempting them from the 5,000 annual limit on deployment of Filipino nurses and other health care workers.

House Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano lauded Bello for trying to find ways to secure COVID-19 vaccines.

“It’s wrong to accuse Bello of selling our frontliners because his action is for the benefit of the OFWs,” said Paduano. “In this time of difficulty when the supply of the needed vaccines are hard to find, we need to leverage our resources to our advantage.”

Germany and the UK have appealed to the Philippine government to lift the deployment cap. Bello then asked these countries to donate 600,000 vaccines to the Philippines in exchange of his recommendation to the Inter-Agency Task Force to approve the request.

“Walang masama sa ginawa ni Sec. Bello. He is actually helping the government produce the much needed vaccines to protect our people,” added Paduano.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Ferdinan Gaite said Bello is commodifying the nurses to get the vaccines.

“It’s a shame that we’ve reached this point that we are “commodifying” our nurses just to get our supply of vaccines. Mga nurse natin ngayon ang magiging kabayaran sa kapalpakan ng pamahalaang ito,” said Gaite.

Gaite said the health care workers were virtually held hostage so they can be used as a bargaining chip.

“I have talked to several health workers organization, at sa totoo lang, gusto ng maraming nurse at HCWs na manatili sa bansa, ang hiling lang nila ay magkaroon ng mas disenteng sahod at benepisyo. Iyan siguro ang dapat pakinggan ng pamahalaan, sa halip na ilako sila na parang barter trade para mapagtakpan itong kapalpakan ng pamahalaan sa pagkuha ng bakuna,” added Gaite.

House Committee on Health chairperson and Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan said it is not a good idea to exchange nurses with vaccines.

Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas also denounced the offer.

“Bakit kailangang i-barter ang mas malaking nurse deployment para sa bakuna sa ating mga OFWs? Why should it be at the risk of exporting more nurses to countries with steep cases of the deadly viral infection?” said Brosas.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)