Statement of Senator Joel Villanueva on the lifting of deployment ban on healthcare workers:

While we welcome the lifting of the deployment ban on healthcare workers, we see this as a reminder for our government to continue raising the standards of compensation for them. As we have said before when we called for the lifting of the ban early on, the most effective way to make our healthcare workers stay and work in our country is to offer better employment terms including competitive salary and benefits, and its timely payout.

We're certain that our healthcare workers would not think twice about leaving their families behind and place themselves overseas where the risk of getting infected is similar here in the country. The world respects and looks up to Filipino healthcare workers as one of the best, and compensates them well for raising the standards of care. Our government should do the same to our own kababayans.