Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III is thankful to President Duterte for approving his recommendation to allow the deployment of health care workers with completed contracts as of August 31.

"I would like to thank the President for acting favorably on our recommendation, which was adopted by the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF), to extend the exemption from March 8 to August 31," he said in an interview Tuesday.

"So, with this approval, all those nurses and medical workers, who completed their papers for deployment as of August 31 will now be allowed to be deployed," added Bello.

"If they have completed all their documentary requirements, like employment contract, visa, ticket…they can go, effective immediately," he said.

Bello said even the Balik Manggagawa or those who merely went home to have a vacation, attend a wedding or birthday, and were caught up by the lockdown, could already leave.

The labor chief also appealed to those calling for the total lifting of the deployment ban to be patient.

"Our appeal to them is just be patient because we are regularly assessing the situation. If the pandemic or situation will improve, we can probably afford to dispense with the services of our health workers," said Bello.

"Our worry is if we continue to allow our nurses and medical workers, it might result to a situation where we will have no nurses to attend to the needs of our own citizens, especially COVID-19 patients," he added.

It was last April when the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) imposed a deployment ban for selected types of health workers citing the dwindling human resources in local hospitals and medical facilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the list are medical doctor/physician, nurse, microbiologist molecular biologist, medical technologist, clinical analyst, respiratory therapist, pharmacist, laboratory technician, X-ray/radiologic technician, nursing assistant/nursing aide, operator of medical equipment, supervisor of health services and personal care, and repairman of medical-hospital equipment.

The IATF later ordered the exemption of healthcare workers with perfected and signed contract as of March 8 from the deployment ban imposed by the POEA.

Earlier this month, Bello endorsed the recommendation of the POEA to allow the deployment of health care workers with completed contracts as of August 31 to the IATF following the appeal of nurses and medical workers.

On Monday, Malacanang announced that healthcare workers with complete documents, as of August 31, are now allowed to be deployed for overseas jobs.