Migrante-Europe has expressed its strong condemnation to the Duterte government’s plan of securing COVID-19 vaccines from the United Kingdom and Germany in exchange of lifting the employment cap for nurses to work in the said countries.
“It is a shame that the Duterte government exploited the dignity of our Filipino nurses, making them as a bargaining tool for the utter incapacity of government regarding the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines,” said Marlon Lacsamana, Migrante-Europe Secretary General, in a press statement Saturday.
The Duterte government who promised 5 years ago to the Overseas Filipino Workers to end the export of labor by providing jobs and just wages in the Philippines has once again showed its heartless and cruel treatment to our health care workers by treating them as bargaining chips of the Duterte government to access vaccine against COVID-19, the statement said.
“From the very start of the pandemic, the Philippine government has never regarded the Filipino medical professionals as important players in the campaign to address COVID-19. While most world leaders rely on scientific research and expert opinions of medical professionals in their respective countries to address the pandemic, the Philippine government rely on active and retired military officers,” it added.*