On Monday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stood before health workers in Eastern Visayas, distributing patient transport vehicles (PTVs) and delivering a message that resonates with patriotism: “We are encouraging our nurses and doctors to stay. They are Filipinos; of course, they want to help their own people.”
The words sound noble. The optics look good. But behind the president’s call lies a much harsher truth: our health workers are leaving in droves not because they want to abandon the Filipino people, but because the system itself has failed them. If we are to be honest, no amount of persuasion or patriotic appeal will keep them here unless we fix the root causes of their exodus.
The Real Score: Why Health Workers Leave
1. Financial Incentives
Let’s not sugarcoat it: the difference in pay is staggering. A Filipino nurse can earn up to $7,500 a month in the United States—over ₱400,000. Here at home? Barely ₱80,000, and that’s in private hospitals. In many government facilities, it’s less than half that amount. In fact, the Philippines ranks lowest in Southeast Asia when it comes to nurses’ salaries. Add to that the better health insurance, retirement plans, and tax breaks available abroad, and the choice becomes painfully clear.
2. Improved Working Conditions
It’s not only about money. Nurses in the Philippines endure 16-hour shifts, often caring for far more patients than international standards allow. Some have no guaranteed rest days. In government hospitals, broken equipment and shortages of medicine are the norm. Contrast that with hospitals abroad where the workload is regulated, facilities are modern, and career advancement is transparent and attainable.
3. Personal and Family Factors
Health workers are human, too. They want to give their families a better life: decent housing, quality education, secure healthcare. By working abroad, they can send remittances that change not only their family’s lives but also fuel the Philippine economy. Ironically, the very government that benefits from their remittances now asks them to stay—without giving them the same dignity and support.
4. Problems at Home
Low salaries, delayed benefits, toxic work environments, and limited career progression—these are not abstract issues. In Sarangani province, for instance, some health workers in government hospitals wait up to three months before receiving their salaries. Three months! Imagine working grueling shifts, sacrificing family time, even risking your life during a pandemic, only to have nothing in your pocket to feed your children. This story repeats itself in many provinces, from Mindanao to Luzon.
The Harsh Reality in the Provinces
Let’s not forget that many of these health workers are employed as job orders by governors and mayors. They are contractual employees—without security of tenure, without sufficient benefits, and often at the mercy of political winds. During election campaigns, these same leaders make promises to uplift their plight. Yet, when in power, they allow health workers to languish under delayed paychecks and impossible workloads.
The hypocrisy is glaring. Leaders praise them as “heroes” when calamities strike, but treat them as expendable labor the rest of the year.
Patient Transport Vehicles: A Band-Aid Solution
Yes, the distribution of PTVs is commendable. These vehicles will help patients reach hospitals faster, and that is no small thing. But let’s not pretend that providing ambulances solves the deeper crisis in our healthcare system. A shiny van with a stretcher cannot fix the chronic underpayment of nurses. An oxygen tank in the backseat cannot replace months of unpaid salaries. A blood pressure monitor inside the PTV will not lessen the burnout of overworked doctors.
Mr. President, The Question is This:
How can you ask our health workers to stay when the very system you lead is pushing them away?
Patriotism alone will not pay for their children’s tuition. National pride cannot buy groceries. Love of country will not cure burnout from double shifts in an underfunded hospital.
This is not just a call to the president—it is also a call to local chief executives. Governors, mayors, hospital directors: stop treating health workers as campaign props or contractual labor. Pay them on time. Secure their tenure. Invest in their training. Provide decent working conditions. If you can’t do that, then don’t be surprised when they pack their bags for better shores.
A Wake-Up Call
It should shame us as a nation that we produce world-class health workers, celebrated globally, yet here at home they are underpaid, overworked, and underappreciated. The president’s call to stay will ring hollow unless backed by real, systemic change.
The question is not whether health workers love their country—they do. The question is: does the country, through its leaders, truly love them back?
Because right now, by the looks of it, we are not keeping them. We are driving them away.
Wake up, Philippines. If we want our nurses, midwives, and doctors to stay, let us give them not just words of encouragement, but the dignity, respect, and compensation they deserve.