Pacquiao: Pinoy nurses should get at least P50k salary per month

Presidential candidate Sen. Manny Pacquiao is seeking an investigation on private hospitals that refuse to properly compensate their health care workers amid the new wave of COVID-19 in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

Pacquiao said many private hospitals and health care facilities are now understaffed or are manned by inexperienced personnel because of bad management and unfair labor practices.

“Itong ating mga medical frontliners ang pinakamahalagang sektor sa gitna ng patuloy na problema natin dahil sa COVID-19. Kailangan natin silang pangalagaan upang hindi sila mawalan ng ganang pagsilbihan ang ating mga kababayan,” Pacquiao said.

(Our medical frontliners are the most crucial sector amid our problem with COVID-19. We need to take care of them so as not to discourage them from servicing our kababayans.)

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Pacquiao said the Department of Health (DoH), the Department of Labor Employment (DOLE), and the Department of Justice (DoJ) should work together to check on the welfare of medical frontliners in the private sector.

Pacquiao also said that the government should also address the complaints of many private hospitals in relation to the sluggish processing of their claims from PhilHealth.

“Kahit maraming pasyente itong ating mga hospital, nalulugi pa rin sila dahil ang tagal namang magbayad sa kanila ang PhilHealth. Paano naman sila makakabayad ng maayos sa kanilang mga empleyado kung wala naman silang nakokolekta?” Pacquiao said.

(Despite the high number of patients, hospitals tend to lose money because of the delayed payment from PhilHealth. How will they be able to pay salary if they could not collect their money?)

Pacquiao promised that if elected as president, he would work for an across-the-board increase on the minimum wage of health care professionals.

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He said that Filipino nurses should have at least a minimum salary of P50,000 a month inclusive of taxes, on top of other compensation such as hazard pay and overtime.

“This amount is still very small as other countries offer a range of P120,000 to as much as P500,000 per month. But at least this is better than the P19,000 per month minimum wage that we pay our nurses. This pandemic has caused a massive demand for health care professionals and other countries are paying a premium just to get their services,” Pacquiao said.

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