In the remaining days of his administration, President Benigno Aquino III vetoed a bill—the Comprehensive Nursing Law of 2016—that seeks to increase the salaries of entry-level nurses.
According to the Palace, Mr. Aquino rejected the measure because doing otherwise would distort the wage system. There will be dire financial consequences for the government and for health institutions.
“The additional costs that this salary increase would entail may cause unintended repercussions, such as possible downsizing of hospital personnel and consequent increase in health care costs. This may similarly discourage continued private investments in the health care sector.”
The Palace added that the increase in nurses’ pay is already covered by an executive order issued this year. If public nurses, for instance, want higher salaries, then they would have to work hard and be rewarded under a performance-based compensation system for government employees.
That there would be dire financial consequences to the system reeks too much of the same thinking behind Mr. Aquino’s decision to veto a bill that would have increased the monthly pension of Social Security System pensioners by P2,000. Giving higher monthly pensions to the system’s older members would run the fund aground, the Palace said.
What Mr. Aquino’s apologists neglected to say was that the future of the fund would also depend on how soundly its managers invested the money and on how modestly they rewarded themselves for their work. It was painful to see the salaries of its executives especially when compared to the measly amount that longtime members and contributors get in their old age.
The Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates said that the non passage of the law was a real letdown to the sector. And why wouldn’t it be?
Once upon a time, nursing was hailed as the superstar of all career tracks. Parents of students were eager to enroll their children in nursing schools because of the high demand for nurses in many countries abroad. True enough, countless families benefited from sending their nurse daughters or sons to serve in foreign lands. The country did, too, in terms of foreign exchange remittances.
But glut eventually settled and now more nurses are finding it difficult to find gainful employment, either here or abroad. Those who serve here find that their expenses going to and from the hospitals they serve are greater than the money they actually earn. They perform their duties anyway.
Nurses serve as the face of the country’s health-care system. Before a patient can see a specialist, he or she most likely first encounters a nurse. Giving nurses the small relief of a higher entry-level salary would not create distortion. It would convey the message that society acknowledges, and rewards in some form, the good that they do.