The temporary ban on overseas employment of doctors, nurses and other health care workers imposed by the Governing Board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on April 2, 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic is constitutional.
However, the ban must be coupled with adequate compensation and other benefits to medical professionals and workers who volunteer to be in the frontlines against the viral menace.
If President Rodrigo Duterte is looking for government assets to sell in order to help fund a stimulus package in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, he could start by auctioning off the golf courses in Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, Villamor Air Base and the Veterans Memorial Medical Center.
In my proposal for a P1-trillion economic stimulus, I identified the sale of government properties as among the funding sources for the stimulus.
Not less than P1-trillion is needed for a stimulus package for government to continue its social and labor amelioration assistance and to provide a lifeline for distressed businesses.
The funding shall include assistance not only to vulnerable families and displaced workers but also to other affected persons belonging to the middle class.
The inclusion in the President’s second weekly report to the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee created under the “Bayanihan Act” of the projected discontinuance and reallocation for the COVID-19 response of P158.554-billion worth of capital outlays raises a number of fundamental problems and overriding issues, namely:
The government can sustain during the extended lockdown its social amelioration packages to vulnerable families, temporary wage benefits to displaced workers, financial assistance to those in the informal sector, and other forms of assistance to affected persons because the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has recently infused P300-billion to the National Treasury.
The BSP purchased government securities from the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) under a repurchase agreement in the amount of P300-billion with a maximum repayment period of six months.
