A government task force will study whether or not to grant exemptions to health workers with existing work contracts from the deployment ban abroad, Malacañang said Thursday in the wake of appeals from nurses.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque announced the agenda of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) meeting on Thursday afternoon even as he expressed optimism that a sense of “nationalism” would prevail among the country’s nurses and health workers and they would opt to serve their fellow Filipinos.

"Inaanunsyo ko na mamayang hapon sa IATF pag-uusapan muli ang ban na ito. Ireresolba kung may exemption o wala dahil sa POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration) resolution na quoted ng IATF resolution may exemption, na may process na paneled at ito ang pag-uusapan mamayang hapon (I am announcing that the IATF will meet Thursday afternoon to discuss the ban again. They will try to resolve whether or not there will be exemptions. Because in the POEA resolution that was quoted in the IATF resolution, there was an exemption for those contracts already processed. It will be discussed this afternoon)," Roque said during a televised press briefing Thursday.

The government task force recently issued Resolution No. 64 on the temporary suspension of the overseas deployment of health workers during the pandemic "considering the continuing state of public health emergency.” The Department of Health and other hospitals and healthcare facilities have been enjoined by the IATF to hire these medical and allied health workers to supplement their workforce.

In April, the IATF allowed health workers with perfected and signed work contracts as of March 8 to be deployed abroad. They were asked to sign a declaration understanding the risks in their overseas work before leaving the country.

The task force allowed the limited deployment of health workers at the time following appeals from the medical community.

The POEA earlier issued a resolution temporarily halted the deployment of all health care workers "until the national state emergency is lifted and until the COVID-19-related travel restrictions are lifted at the destination countries." Negotiations of bilateral labor agreements for government-to-government deployment of health workers have also been temporarily suspended during the health emergency.

In his remarks Thursday, Roque tried to encourage Filipino health workers to stay in the country and serve fellow Filipinos during the pandemic.

Roque said if health workers leave for overseas work, no one will take care of their families who will be left behind.

“Kahit pa mangibang bansa ang ating mga health workers, may iiwan silang mahal sa buhay dito. Sana 'yun din ang maisip ng mga health professionals. Wala naman mag-aattend sa (kanilang) pamilya pag kinailangan. Yun sana manaig sa kanilang mga damdamin (Even if our health workers go abroad, they will have families who will be left here. I hope our health professionals will consider that. No one will attend to their families if we are in need of health workers. I hope they will think of them),” he said.

"Sa panahon ng pandemya, mananaig naman ang nasyonalismo sa puso at damdamin ng ating mga nurses (In times of pandemic, nationalism will prevail in the hearts of our nurses)," he said.

He noted that the government has already raised the salary of government nurses, even as he recognized the pay differences with their counterparts in the private sector.

More benefits such as hazard allowance, housing and free testing, will be given to the country's health workers under the Bayanihan 2 proposal, he added.