DMW proposes medical scholarship program to be funded by countries recruiting Filipino health workers

Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople is proposing a medical scholarship program to be partially funded by countries that are sourcing their health care workers from the Philippines.

Ople disclosed this at a Senate budget hearing when asked about Department of Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire's remark, saying they were not consulted on the deployment cap of healthcare workers.

The chief of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said she discussed with Vergeire and Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma the solutions to rationalize the global demand for Filipino health workers and the shortage that the country experiences right now.

"Ang proposal po namin sa DMW is for us to work together on an inter-agency level on a sustainability program kasi hindi po talaga maiiwasan na aalis at aalis din sila eh and I think it is also unjust to make them stay here dahil they've been waiting for the circumstances to change in the domestic workforce," Ople said.

"We have proposed that we can come up with a pool of scholars. We will ask during our bilateral talks with other countries for them to contribute to a scholarship fund for [medical technologists], all kinds of health workers po," she added.

Ople said the scholarship fund can be administered by the DOH.

"Kung dati po nu'ng panahon ni (Health) Secretary Flavier, mayroong 'Doctors to the Barrios,' puwede rin pong 'Doctors and Nurses from the Barrios' given this scholarship fund," Ople said.

An inter-agency meeting with DOH, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Foreign Affairs, and Commission on Higher Education will be conducted on Monday to discuss proposals extensively, she added.

While she proposed a scholarship program for health workers, Ople stressed the need to address the healthcare situation in the Philippines as opportunities are attractive abroad.

"We also need to look at the conditions here kasi it's very clear yung attractiveness of the conditions elsewhere. It's really here that we  need to address po the problem," she said. — RSJ, GMA News