TITU.[6BUTI.
ETIII Editorial
Stirring win for nu-rses;
nation's teachers next
lFlFl he country's nurses in government hos-
I I lpitats won a stirring iictory when the
I Supreme Court ruled last October 8 that
& they are entitled to a minimum monthly
salary of P3o,ooo under Republic Act 9123, the
Philippine NursingAct signed by President cloria
M. Arroyo in 2oo2. But Congress willhive to enact
the funds needed to implement the law.
Government nurses are among the many gov-
ernment workers who have long been asking for
salary adjustments. The national orgahization of
nurses, the Filipino Nurses United (FNU), said
they are among the most overworked government
workers, each nurse attending to 4,o patients in
. some hospitals, when the ideal ratio is 1:12, The
current take-home pay of government nurses is
Pl8,ooo to P21,ooo a month. It is even lower in
private hospitals - P8,ooo to P12,ooo.
This is one reason so many Filipino nurses seek
employment abroad. In comparison, the average
monthly salary of a nurse in the United States is
equivalent to P2oo,ooo.
All these yearS; nurses have not been given the
pay provided by RA 9U3 because congress in 2oo9
approved Joint Resolution"No. 4 authorizing the.
president to modify the compensation and position
classification system of government employees.
President Arroyo then issued Executive Order 811
" setting salary grades for all government workers
and that for government nurses was set at Grade
tt-P2o,75tr, a month.
Last week, the Supreme Court, acting on a
petition filed by the Ang Nars partylist, ruled that
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, october 23, 2019
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,MANILABULLETIN
ocToBER 23,2019
a Congress ioint resolution and a presidential ex-
ecutive order cannot overturn a law.
In the wake of the court decision, A.nak Ka-
lusugan partylist Rep. Michael Defensor called
on Congres to now pass a joint resolution putting
into effect the increased nurses' pay. He pointed
out that this was how the nation's soldiers and
policemen were able to have their salaries doubled
in 2oU by Congress prodded by the newly elected
President Duterte.
In response to claims thatthe government has
not been able raise governmgnt salaries for lack
of funds, FNU President Eleador Velasco said that
what the government lacks is not funding but
political will. When the President wanted money
for police salaries, there were funds for'it, she
pointed out. "They have the money if they want
to, but they have a thousand reasons if they don't
.
want to. "
Now that the Supreme Court has ruled on gov-
ernment nurses' salaries, it would not look good if
President Duterte, who went all-out for military
and police pay increases, would continue to leave
the prbblem to Congiess. He would open himsetf to
claims that he lacks political will for nurses after
what he did for the uniformed services.
Then there is the problem ofteachers - a much
bigger problem because they are many more than
policemen or nurses. The teachers may not have a
Supreme Court decisioh behind them but, perhaps
more than any other group in the government
service, they deserve much better pay than they
are recelvlns now.