Philippines to offer jobs to 12,500 nurses

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 21, 2011) – Manila is hiring thousands of nurses for its health program, but there is nearly 300,000 still jobless in the country.

Senator Franklin Drilon said up to 12,500 jobs are available. He said Budget Secretary Florencio Abad has given the go signal to grant Health Secretary Enrique Ona an authorization to hire an additional 10,000-12,500 nursing professionals in the government workforce.

“We agreed that between now and the end of the year, the Department of Health should be given an authorization to hire 10,000-12,500 nurses,” Drilon said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

“This is good news... I am glad that our health system will be given a temporary relief due to the hiring of additional nurses,” Drilon, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said.

But Drilon said there are currently 287,000 nursing graduates who are either unemployed or underemployed, and this is on top of 37,513 examinees that passed the Nurse Licensure Examination in July.

Drilon said they will study the proposed national budget for next year to determine how many new nursing positions will be made available. (Mindanao Examiner)