GMA to lobby for nurses

Easier entry of RP garments also high on agenda
 
President Gloria Arroyo will ask American lawmakers to support pieces of US legislation that would make it easier for Filipino nurses and Philippine-made garments and textiles to enter the United States.

“High on the agenda [of President Arroyo] will be something that has to do with the Philippine garments and textile industry [on which there is a] pending bill in the US Congress,” Gary Olivar, the Malacañang spokesman for economic affairs, told The Manila Times on Thursday. “I think there is another opportunity for us to send nurses to the US [under another pending bill in the US Congress]. These are the bills in the US Congress that are in line with Philippine interests.”

The President is in Washington, D.C., on an eight-day working visit that began on Wednesday and whose highlight would be a meeting with US President Barack Obama today.

Protectionism issue

According to Olivar, the President will also bring up protectionism issues during the meeting, the first that Obama would be having with a Southeast Asian head of state since his inauguration earlier this year.

“There may be discussion on both countries agreeing on not being protectionist because in the American stimulus act, the buy-American component is also very strong. That may come up in their discussion,” the Malacañang spokesman said.

“But [protectionism is not a] big issue for us right now. Our concern is that protectionism hurts a developing country like us,” Olivar added.

Besides, he said, exports were also not a major concern for the Philippines but deployment of overseas Filipino workers is, he said.

When asked about the US commitment to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Olivar moved that the Americans must uphold their obligation to the organization.

“We expect the American government to continue to advocate the principles of free trade that are established and enshrined in the WTO,” he said.

Mrs. Arroyo arrived in Washington, D.C., late Wednesday (Thursday morning in Manila) on the first leg of her eight-day working visit to the US aimed at enhancing economic, trade and bilateral ties between the Philippines and the United States.

Jobs for nurses

Nursing jobs are simply not there for thousands of Filipinos hopeful of going to the United States.

“The US still needs nurses but it’s not giving out visas for nurses now. It needs to legislate to provide additional work-related permanent visas for nurses,” Dean Josefina Tuazon of the University of the Philippines Manila-College of Nursing said last year.

Observers believe that visas for foreign-trained nurses will be issued again next year when the US Congress, upon the urging of patients and the health-care industry, approves the quota for foreign-trained nurses that has already been filled up.

“Although the US still needs more nurses, in view of the recent US recession and financial crisis, working nurses there now put in additional hours while others are going back to nursing, thus local nurses are filling local demand,” Tuazon said.

Meanwhile, the Filipino nurses in the Philippines can try Canada.

Tuason said that Canada was aggressively recruiting Filipino nurses to the extent of even coming here for direct hiring.

Called “provincial nominees,” nurses are now a priority there, she added.

“A boom is ongoing and Canada needs to populate and provide nursing services to their rural and remote areas,” Tuazon explained.

Currently, the Philippines through the Department of Labor and Employment has a Memorandum of Agreement with the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia and Alberta.

There is a glut in available positions for nurses in the Philippines.

As of 2008, according to the Labor department and the nursing community, up to 100,000 nurses were unemployed. –Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter, Manila Times