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The Government Can Stop The Doctors From Leaving

August 4, 2007

The government, with its reputation for coming up with temporary and piece-meal solutions to social and economic problems, is now contemplating barring Filipino doctors from migrating and working overseas. Health secretary Francisco Duque seems to be keen on imposing such ban on deployment:

Here’s the article published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer this August 3:

DoH: Gov’t can stop doctors from leaving; it is the law
By Nikko Dizon
Inquirer
Last updated 06:33am (Mla time) 08/03/2007
MANILA, Philippines — Filipino doctors would be barred from migrating and working abroad to avert a possible shortage of medical practitioners, if Health Secretary Francisco Duque III had his way.

“You don’t expect Indians and Cambodians to treat Filipinos,” Duque Thursday told reporters on the sidelines of his meeting with provincial governors and his counterpart in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on the “FOURmula One for Health” strategy of the Department of Health (DoH).

“While we’re out there treating other people, the irony is we don’t have anyone to treat our own people. Of course, the authorities will not allow it. Political leaders will not allow that. I will not allow it. If I have to respond to it today, I will close the door,” he said.

According to Duque, the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 (Republic Act No. 8043) allows the government to implement this extreme measure, especially “when the profession is deemed mission-critical.”

“The government has the authority, the power, to close the exit doors,” he said.

The ban on deployment is in Section 5 of the law, which states that the labor secretary, “in pursuit of the national interest or when public welfare so requires may, at any time, terminate or impose a ban on the deployment of migrant workers.”

On the brink

Duque said that while he did not have exact data, he believed that the Philippines was on the brink of a shortage of medical doctors.

He estimated that the country had lost from 5,000 to 6,000 doctors since 2001.

A big number of doctors have also studied or are studying to become nurses for them to be able to work overseas.

Duque said he was scheduled to meet on Friday with the University of the Philippines’ National Institute of Health, which had conducted a study on the migration of doctors.

“I will ask if there is any threshold to be established that will signal government authorities to shut the door,” he said.

Asked if preventing Filipino doctors from leaving the country would not violate their rights, Duque said: “I will give you this question — When do individual human rights end and national interest begins?”

Solutions

Duque said that in the late 1990s, the government invoked the deployment ban in the Migrant Workers Act to stop the exodus of Filipino pilots.

“They were all leaving and threatening the integrity of the airline industry. What the labor department and the other relevant agencies did was to invoke [the Migrant Workers Act]. We have to protect the national interest,” he said.

Duque said the health department’s response to the steady migration of doctors included the continuing implementation of its “Doctors to the Barrios” and “Pinoy MD” programs.

He also mentioned a medium-term solution complemented by the foundation of Jose Miguel Arroyo, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband, which awards scholarships to poor but deserving medical students at UP and the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.

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Written by Prudence · Filed Under Health, News 

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