COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 20, 2010) - Ibinuko ng ilang mga guro ang diumano’y talamak na bentahan ng “plantilla” sa Department of Education sa Muslim autonomous region sa lalawigan ng Sulu.
Lumapit sa media ang dalawang guro at humihingi ng tulong upang matigil ang korapsyon sa kanilang hanay. Nanawagan pa ang mga guro sa Pangulong Benigno Aquino at mga kinauukulan na masusing imbestigahan ang nasabing bintang.
Ayon sa mga guro ay naniningil diumano ang ilang tiwaling opisyal mula P60,000-P100,000 bilang kapalit sa plantilla sa Sulu.
Marami na umanong nabiktima ang grupo at ilan na rin ang nabigyan ng trabaho, ngunit ang masakit ay hindi pa nakakatanggap ng sweldo ang mga ito at madalas na idahilan ay ang pina-process pa ang kanilang mga papeles. Hinihinala rin na may mga “ghost teachers” sa naturang lalawigan at kinukulekta ang kanilang mga sweldo ng mga nasa likod ng sindikato.
Nabatid na karamihan sa mga nagbabayad upang makakuha ng trabaho ay mga gurong hindi nakapasa sa required government licensure examinations.
“Terible talaga dito (sa Sulu) at nagpapakahirap na nga ang mga guro na makapasok ng trabaho ay ibinibenta pa ang mga plantilla. Kawawa naman kami dahil yun mga iba ay nagungutang pa para lamang makakuha ng plantilla kasi iyon ang inaalok sa kanila par makapagturo,” ani ng isang guro.
“Sana tulungan kami ni President Benigno Aquino at ng Department of Education sa ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) at ng National Bureau of Investigation para matigil na itong kalokohan,” ani pa ng isang guro.
Ito rin diumano ang problema sa Lanao del Sur province na kabilang rin sa Muslim autonomous region, ayon pa sa isang opisyal ng ARMM na nilapitan ng Abante upang idulog ang anomalya.
Sinigurado naman ni Atty. Baratucal Caudang, ang Secretary ng DepEd-ARMM, na bibigyan nito ng kaukulang pansin ang sumbong at sinabi nitong dapat maglabas ng ebidensya ang mga guro upang matibay ang kaso sa mga nasa likod ng anomalya.
“We will not tolerate this kind of activities and we are urging those who are complaining to present their evidence. They should have the courage to come out and identify those who are engaged in these activities,” ani Caudang sa panayam ng Mindanao Examiner. “We have to serve as model. We will not tolerate this malpractice.”
Hindi ito ang kauna-unahang pagkakataon na nag-reklamo ang mga guro ukol sa graft and corruption sa Department of Education sa ARMM.
Talamak noon ang anomalya at maging mga sweldo ng mga guro ay ninakaw at ang milyon-milyong psiong bayad sa premiums ng Government Service Insurance System ng mga empleyado ng ARMM ay hindi rin nai-remit sa pamahalaan.
Ngunit sa kabila nito ay walang malaking isda na nasampahan ng kasong kriminal dahil sa paglabag ng anti-graft law at iba pang kawalanghiyaan sa ARMM. (Mindanao Examiner)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Raket, ibinulgar ni Teacher!
Philippines Weather Advisory "Megi" October 20
Synopsis: At 4:00 a.m. today, October 20, 2010.
The center of Typhoon "JUAN" (local code name) was located based on radar satellite and surface data at 340 km West Northwest of Dagupan City (17.2°N 117.2°E) with maximum sustained winds of 175 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 210 kph.
It is forecast to move West Northwest at 7 kph.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
Civilian killed, village chieftain wounded in Basilan attack
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 20, 2010) Gunmen shot and killed a civilian and wounded a village chieftain in an attack Wednesday in the restive province of Basilan in the southern Philippines, police said.
Police said the victims were driving a motorcycle when the gunmen attacked them in Sengal village in Lamitan town. It said the driver of the motorbike, Jamrud Kuranding, was instantly killed in the attack while the village chieftain Jainudin Dulla is wounded and rushed to a private hospital in nearby Zamboanga City.
“There is an investigation going on,” said Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, the regional police chief.
Dulla is the chieftain of Balas village also in Lamitan town and the attack occurred ahead of Monday’s village polls in the country. It was not immediately known if the attack was connected to political rivalry or not.
Just early this month, motorcycle gunmen also killed a poll official, Entong Musa, in Basilan’s Isabela City.
Musa, an election officer in Tuburan town, was fatally shot on October 2 as he was walking in San Rafael village.
Basilan is one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region where elections are traditionally violent. The province, just several nautical miles of Zamboanga city, is also a hot bed of Abu Sayyaf insurgency. (With a report from Jun Bernardo)
Cagayan de Oro to host gov't, private sector confab
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 20, 2010) - The City of Golden Friendship, Cagayan de Oro, in northern Mindanao is hosting the “1st Government-Private Sector Conference on Our Country’s Economic Prospects Under the Aquino Administration” is all set on November 18 at the Xavier Sports and Country Club in Cagayan de Oro City.
Organized in cooperation with the Department on Interior and Local Government under regional director Loreto Bhagwani and the Oro Chamber of Commerce, this event hopes to gather the region’s 94 mayors and 5 governors and around 100 business leaders to listen to noted economist and Harvard-trained Dr. Bernardo Villegas, Senior Vice-President and Dean of the School of Economics of the University of Asia and the Pacific, speak on the shift in global economic power away from the developed economies to the emerging markets.
In the process, Dr. Villegas is expected to show the implications this shift has on the Philippine economy, how the Aquino administration, with its emphasis on good governance, is our best chance to finally claim our place among the N-11 countries, the eleven countries identified by Goldman Sachs as the next emerging economic powers after Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and what the mayors and governors, working with the private sector, could do to help make this forecast a reality.
In other words, this is really an attempt—not only to prepare in case the Goldman Sachs prediction happens—but more so to make sure the prediction happens, and, if possible, to hasten its materialization by focusing attention to the need for a deliberate and systematic identification of opportunities, setting of goals, and charting the course that will secure these goals.
This activity is focusing on mayors and business leaders because more will be accomplished were these two to work hand-in-hand than were the two to work independently, for, indeed, it is the private sector who’ll take care of the investment and management, and the government sector of the infrastructure and incentives, a powerful combination if done properly.
No less than President Aquino appreciates this, that’s probably why he is batting for closer collaboration between the private sector and the government.
This is the reason why Dr. Villegas will have with him Dr. Rolando Dy, Executive Director of the Center for Food and Agribusiness of the University of Asia and the Pacific, one of the country’s foremost experts on agri-business to give inputs and to answer questions pertaining to agri-business, one area which promises to be a driving force behind any economic surge, and which Mindanao holds so much promise of.
This conference is being initiated by A Brown Co Inc as part of its corporate social responsibility. A Brown is the developer of Xavier Estates, TeakwoodHills, Valencia Estates in Valencia City, Bukidnon, and West Highlands in Butuan City.
A Brown acknowledges the key support of the Director Bhagwani and the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation in making this conference possible. (Abraham Llera)
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Philippine leader, Mindanao governors meet; talk about peace, anti-poverty programs
MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 19, 2010) – Philippine leader Benigno Aquino III have met with five governors of Mindanao and discussed with them the government’s anti-poverty program and peace efforts in the troubled region.
Among those Aquino had met were Sulu Governor Sakur Tan and Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, two of the most influential political leaders in the southern Philippines.
Both Sulu and Maguindanao are part of the five-province Muslim autonomous region and one of the poorest in the country. The governors also briefed the president about the current state of the provinces and their issues and concerns about the impoverished region.
Aquino also met Monday with government secretaries. (Mindanao Examiner)
EJK monitoring and reporting project launched
The “Target EJK and Enforced Disappearances in the Philippines: A Consensus-Building, Media Reporting and Risk Reduction Project” can be accessed on this URL - http://targetejk.net and also IWPR’s third project in the Philippines and its second focusing on the issue of human rights and impunity.
Alan Davis, Target EJK director and IWR Head of Asia Programming, said that despite a very high and increasing number of killings and involuntary disappearances, there is huge disagreement over actual numbers or who should be deemed a victim.
Human rights activists, trade union officials, leftist politicians, journalists and land reform advocates comprise the vast majority of victims. Yet soldiers, policemen and militiamen are equally being targeted. So too are petty criminals and government officials and judges, he said.
Data collection is typically determined by the political and ideological views of those doing the monitoring and is consequently rejected by others.
“The only result is everybody loses, not least all the continuing victims and their families left behind,” Davis said.
Given such divisions and confusion, Target EJK has started working to depoliticize and universalize the issue showing it as a critical issue that unites rather than divides.
Funded by the European Union-Philippines Justice Programme, Target EJK builds upon the earlier work of IWPR and its three partner organizations - Center for Community Journalism and Development, MindaNews, and National Union of Journalists of the Philippines - within the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project and is based on the premise that developing a politically neutral approach is the first crucial step toward building a common approach and combating the climate of impunity.
The Target EJK launch in Quezon City was the first time the human rights group Karapatan has agreed to take part in a roundtable discussion with the Philippine military. Karapatan has blamed the military for all extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country, while the military claims the group is in fact part of the insurgency movement.
Over recent weeks, IWPR has been meeting with state and non-state groups and interests to listen to competing views of what should and what should not be deemed an extrajudicial killing. IWPR has also started investigating specific cases of killings and enforced disappearances as well as examining capabilities and deficiencies of the current justice and forensic system.
This short-term project runs through until March 2011.
Vice-mayor given ultimatum in Maguindanao gang rape case: ABS-CBN
MANILA, Philippines (ABS-CBN) - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima is giving South Upi, Maguindanao Vice-Mayor Jordan Ibrahim up to today to voluntarily submit himself to buccal (oral) swabbing and taking of blood samples for DNA profiling in order to rule him out as suspect in the rape of 21-year-old volunteer nurse, "Florence" last September 25.
De Lima told reporters in a news conference that she has received reports linking the vice-mayor to the crime, but refused to give details.
"Initially, the Vice-Mayor volunteered to give samples but when he said that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) chemists already came back to Manila. So I directed the NBI investigator-in-charge to find out within the day if the offer of the vice-mayor still stands. I have the details na may indication na baka may kinalaman ang vice-mayor. I have the details right now, but I cannot disclose at this point. In due time, I will disclose," de Lima said.
The justice chief said blood samples and buccal swabs taken from six suspects first rounded up by local police turned negative when compared to samples (vaginal smear, vaginal swab, anal swab) obtained from the victim.
Prosecutors have dropped the charges against Michael Calendario, Jeffrey Fernandez, Glen Saldua, Roscon Sanglap, Darwin Escalona, and Eugene Biscarra for lack of evidence.
Another suspect, Melchor Fulgencio, remains in jail and is facing rape with frustrated homicide charges.
De Lima however said Fulgencio also tested negative in the DNA profiling.
"Negative yung 7. But investigators are saying na si Fulgencio seems to be telling the truth partially. Kasi nag-polygraph test sila. Meaning, yung mga sinasabi niyang iba, totoo. Ang kwestyunable na lang, ang identity nung sinasabi niyang Edwin. It's possible Fulgencio knows kung sino exactly ang Edwin na yan only that he (Fulgencio) is not willing to say it," de Lima said.
Two other males were subjected to DNA profile, including the owner of the videoke joint where Candelario's group was drinking. They, too, tested negative in the DNA profiling.
"The results of the test (on Florence) point only to a single DNA profile. So isang male lang daw," de Lima said.
The Justice chief said she will immediately send NBI chemists to South Upi should Vice-Mayor Ibrahim say he is willing to subject himself to the test.
"There are reports that he is hesitant. I was told his lawyers said they will accede to that only if he is officially considered a suspect," de Lima said.
Asked what the repercussions were should Ibrahim respond by refusing the test, de Lima said she will confer with the NBI and the Philippine National Police for the possibility of declaring him a suspect.
The DOJ is also awaiting word from Florence's doctors as to when she can be accessed by investigators so she can shed light on the incident.
The DOJ is also mulling transferring Florence to a hospital in Metro Manila to ensure her security.
Florence is currently being secured by the Davao police at the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City where she is recuperating from blows to the head and body. (Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News)
Link: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/10/19/10/vice-mayor-given-ultimatum-maguindanao-gang-rape-case
Philippines Weather Advisory "Megi" October 19
Synopsis: At 4:00 a.m. today, October 19, 2010.
Typhoon "JUAN" (local code name) was located based on radar satellite and surface data at 210 km West Southwest of Laoag City (17.4°N 118.7°E) with maximum sustained winds of 160 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 195 kph.
It is forecast to move Northwest at 22 kph.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
Monday, October 18, 2010
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Army engineers renew commitment, vows more mercy projects
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 18, 2010) – The Philippine Army’s 55th Engineer Brigade renewed its commitment to serve the people and country and support the government’s peace and development efforts in Mindanao.
The brigade, now based in Zamboanga City, recently celebrated its 18th anniversary with various activities, including a medical mission that benefitted some 200 villagers here.
With the theme “55E: Rendering the Best of Service for Peace, Unity and Progress across Western Mindanao,” civil-military officer, Major Alfonso Enriquez, said “the anniversary celebration renews our commitment to vanguards of freedom, peace and development by serving God, protecting our country and people.”
He said Lieutenant General Arturo Ortiz, commander of the Philippine Army, graced the occasion and spoke during the program attended both by soldiers and civilians. He also congratulated the awardees of this year’s Unit Best and those behind 55th Engineer Brigade headed by Brigadier General Michaelo Salvaleon.
The engineer brigade was largely credited for many infrastructure projects in Western Mindanao, among them were the rehabilitation and concreting of roads, electrification and water system, construction of health centers and school buildings and hospitals and the rehabilitation of the Basilan circumferential road. (Jung Francisco)
Mindanao natives call spirits to fight illegal logging
SURIGAO DEL SUR, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 18, 2010) - The Mamanwa and Manobo tribes in Surigao del Sur province in Mindanao have joined efforts to stop a logging company from cutting trees in their ancestral domain.
The natives also protested and petitioned the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and even performed rituals to “awaken” the spirits of their ancestors and God to help them in their struggle against this so-called encroachment on the land that was handed down from generations past.
Datu Bidao, the Manobo tribe’s chieftain and babaylan (spiritual leader/high priest) recently performed the pangapog, a ritual asking the spirits of their ancestors and Magbabaya (God) to curse the VTC and people who are helping the logging operations in their ancestral lands.
“We petitioned God and the spirits of our ancestors to let the trees they cut fall on them and let their machines fall into the ravine,” he said.
Bidao strongly believes that Magbabaya and their ancestors will intervene on their behalf. (Bong D. Fabe)
ARMM teachers scammed!
COTABATO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 18, 2010) – State teachers in the southern Philippine province of Sulu have accused some education officials of corruption and urged government authorities to investigate allegations of grafts.
Two teachers alleged that officials were demanding between 60,000 to 100,000 pesos in exchange for appointment papers that would give an applicant a permanent teaching job in various schools in Sulu, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region.
They claimed that many had been victimized by the scam and that a few were given jobs, but did not receive their salaries for month now. Many of those who applied for the jobs did not pass the required government licensure examinations for teachers.
“It was terrible. We are struggling to work hard, but some people are taking advantage of us,” one teacher said. “Some people are collecting money in exchange of teaching jobs – sixty thousand pesos and up to one hundred pesos are being demanded by them.”
They urged the President Benigno Aquino and the Department of Education in the Muslim autonomous region and the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the scam. “We are willing to come out in the open so we can put a stop into these nefarious activities. We are appealing to President Aquino to order an investigation into our complaints,” another teacher said.
The same problem is also happening in Lanao del Sur province which is part of the Muslim autonomous region.
Lawyer Baratucal Caudang, Education Secretary, said his office would investigate the allegations and urged those who were victimized to come out and file charges. “We will not tolerate this kind of activities and we are urging those who are complaining to present their evidence. They should have the courage to come out and identify those who are engaged in these activities,” he said.
Caudang said he will not tolerate graft and corruption. “We have to serve as model. We will not tolerate this malpractice,” he added.
It was not the first time teachers complained about graft and corruption in the Department of Education in the Muslim autonomous region.
Graft and corruption was so widespread in the past that even salaries for teachers had been stolen and insurance premiums of state workers were not remitted to the central government. But despite these problems, no one had been charged or jailed for violations of the anti-graft law and other wrongdoings in the Muslim autonomous region. (Mindanao Examiner)
Philippines Weather Advisory "Megi" October 18
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Labor slams Philippine Trade chief's proposal to clip security of tenure
MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 17, 2010) - Filipino Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo has drawn criticism for his proposal to attract fresh investments by cutting short the right to security of tenure enjoyed by workers.
"The right of workers to security of tenure is guaranteed not just by any law, but by the Constitution itself. Secretary Domingo should read the Constitution," said former Senator Ernesto Herrera, secretary-general of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines.
Herrera portrayed Domingo's proposal as "unimaginative," and likened it to everyday calls for government to spur business activity by simply freezing wages.
"Government should stop using workers as sacrificial lambs in the drive to lure new capital," said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development.
Instead, Herrera urged government to reduce administrative red tape; lessen crime and corruption; build up the country's human resources; ensure stable supply of electricity nationwide; and check unfair trade practices, including smuggling and copyright infringement, that dampen investments.
Domingo earlier sought the easing of the Labor Code's provision on security of tenure. "I think we are one of the few countries with a security of tenure provision," he said.
Security of tenure means the right to continue in employment and the right to be protected against dismissal except for just and authorized cause under conditions required by law.
"The stricter the law, the less competitive we are. We have to relax some of our labor laws to be more competitive," Domingo said.
"What Secretary Domingo wants in effect is for employers to have even more leeway in arbitrarily throwing workers out of their jobs, so that they may be replaced wholesale with new and cheaper labor," Herrera said.
The former senator said the law's security of tenure provision could not be amended without violating the Constitution.
He cited Article XIII, Section 3, paragraph 2 of the Constitution, which reads as follows: "It (the State) shall guarantee the rights of all workers to self-organization, collective bargaining and negotiations, and peaceful concerted activities, including the right to strike in accordance with law.
They shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and a living wage. They shall also participate in policy and decision-making processes affecting their rights and benefits as may be provided by law."
To give flesh to the mandate of the Constitution, Article 279 of the Labor Code reads as follows: "Security of tenure. - In cases of regular employment, the employer shall not terminate an employee except for a just cause."
"An employee who is unjustly dismissed from work shall be entitled to reinstatement without loss of seniority rights and other privileges and to his full back wages, inclusive of allowances, and to his other benefits or their monetary equivalent computed from the time his compensation was withheld from him up to the time of his actual reinstatement."
Article 277 of the same Code also requires the employer to provide due process to every worker facing termination. Once removed, the worker may contest the validity of his dismissal before the labor court. The burden of proving that the discharge was for a valid cause rests on the employer.
NPA rebels kill 2 pro-army militias in Agusan Sur
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 17, 2010) – Two pro-government militias were killed and two others wounded in a clash with communist rebels in Agusan del Sur province in the southern Philippines, an army spokesman said Sunday.
Officials said the fighting broke out in the village of Manat in Trento town after militias intercepted Saturday a group of New People’s Army rebels. One of the dead was the leader of the militias, John Mark Domogoy.
“Pursuit operation is going on,” said Major Noli Kanashiro, of the 4th Infantry Division. “Villagers are now defending themselves against the NPA which has been victimizing innocent civilians. The people are angry and they are now fighting back to defend themselves.”
He said the fighting also left a still undermined number of casualties on the rebel side. He said NPA forces also left behind one M14 automatic rifle and two land mines, including a medical kit.
On Saturday, security forces also clashed with NPA rebels in Davao del Sur and wounding three soldiers in the village of Sinoron in Santa Cruz town where troops had been tracking down the gunmen tagged as behind the spate of attacks in the province.
The NPA is the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines which has been waging a secessionist war for decades now.
New Zealand has only this month blacklisted the CPP and the NPA and included the two groups on its list of international terrorist organizations. (Mindanao Examiner)
Zambo, handa rin sa bagyo!
ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 17, 2010) – Todo bantay ngayon ang mga lokal na awtoridad sa pagpasok ng bagyong Juan sa bansa upang mabigyan ng sapat na proteksyon ang publiko sa posibleng kalamidad dala ng malakas na ula.
Pumasok na sa northern Luzon ang bagyo, ngunit bagama’t malayo sa Mindanao ay dama naman sa Zamboanga City ang masamang panahon dala nito.
Kahapon lamang ay binaha ang maraming lugar sa Zamboanga at halos liparin ang maraming mga signboards sa downtown area.
Nawasak naman ang malaking signboard ng Ateneo de Zamboanga at maging pader nito ay nasira rin dahil sa lakas ng hangin at ulan at lahat ng ito’y sanhi lamang ng buntot ng bagyong Juan na may international codename na “Megi”.
Malakas pa rin ang hangin sa Zamboanga at nasa daungan naman ang maraming fishing boats dahil sa malalaking alon sa karagatan.
Ayon sa Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) mahahagip ng bagyo ang Ilocos area at naitala ang lakas ng hangin taglay nito sa 195 kilometers per hour hanggang sa 230 kilometers per hour.
Unang mahahagip ng bagyo ang Cagayan Valley at inalabas na rin ng PAGASA ang Signal No. 2 at 3 sa maraming lugar doon sa northern Luzon. (Mindanao Examiner)
Synopsis : At 4:00 a.m. today, the center of Typhoon (local code name) "JUAN" was located based on satellite and surface data at 630 km East of Aparri, Cagayan (18.7°N 128.2°E) with maximum sustained winds of 160 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 195 kph.
Forecast to move West at 24 kph.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Filipino nurses seeking US jobs continue to decline
MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 16, 2010) - The number of Filipino nurses aspiring to practice their profession in America continued to drop year-on-year in the third quarter, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines reported on Saturday.
Ernesto Herrera, TUCP secretary-general, said only 2,227 Filipino nurses took the US NCLEX for the first time from July to September, down 38 percent or 1,355 fewer compared to the 3,582 in the same three-month period in 2009.
TUCP now expects some 5,000 fewer Filipino nurses taking the NCLEX the whole of this year, according to Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development.
Thus far, a total of 7,780 Filipino nurses took the NCLEX for the first time from January to September, down 35 percent or 4,074 less versus the 11,854 in the same nine-month period last year.
The NCLEX is the licensure exam administered by the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing Inc. The number of Filipino nurses taking the test for the first time is a reliable indicator as to how many of them are trying to enter the profession in the US, Herrera said.
A total of 15,382 Filipino nurses took the NCLEX for the first time in the whole of 2009, down 5,364 or 26 percent from 20,746 in 2008. All told, since 2005, some 90,000 Filipino nurses have taken the NCLEX for the first time, that is, excluding repeaters.
Despite the decline in the number of Filipinos nurses seeking US employment, Herrera said the Philippines remains America's largest supplier of new foreign nurses, after India, South Korea, Canada and Nigeria.
Outside the US, the Philippines is also the United Kingdom's third biggest supplier of new foreign nurses, after India and Australia.
Herrera said many Filipino nurses have temporarily sought employment in local industries, mainly services, while waiting for more gainful work in foreign labor markets.
"We now have thousands of registered nurses engaged in services that have nothing to do with their profession, working as contact center staff, baristas, cashiers, even lotto terminal operators," Herrera said.
The Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) earlier estimated at 200,000 the jobless nurses in the country. "A total of 37,679 new practitioners passed the local licensure exam in July. They are now competing for jobs with some 160,000 unemployed nurses," PNA said.
TUCP supports the continued deployment of Filipino nurses to lucrative overseas labor markets. "We obviously have a large surplus of nurses," Herrera said.
"We would prefer that government encourage the deployment of nurses, and discourage the placement of domestic helpers overseas," Herrera said.
"Filipino nurses abroad are generally less vulnerable to employer abuse. Their skills protect them. Their skills are not easy to replace, so employers are careful not to mistreat and drive them away," he said.
"As to domestic helpers, they are extremely susceptible to abuse because they live with their employers, and their skills are easy to replace," Herrera said.
"In Hong Kong for instance, for every Filipino domestic helper, there could be dozens of Indonesians, Thais and even local Chinese replacements waiting in line. This is also true in the Middle East. Potential substitutes from Sri Lanka and Indonesia abound," he added.