PH nursing grads spend big bucks on US licensure dream--solon
At A Glance
- Quezon City 4th district Rep. Marvin Rillo says Philippine nursing graduates spent an accumulated P200 million to take the United States (US) licensure examination for the first time from January to June this 2023.

Quezon City 4th district Rep. Marvin Rillo
Did you know that Philippine nursing graduates spent an accumulated P200 million to take the United States (US) licensure examination for the first time from January to June this year alone?
Doing the math, Quezon City 4th district Rep. Marvin Rillo said a total of 18,104 Philippine nursing graduates registered for the National Council Licensure Examination or NCLEX for that time period.
“The number is 123 percent higher compared to the 8,128 Philippine-educated nurses that took the NCLEX for the first time (without counting repeaters) in the same six-month period in 2022, in a bid to practice their profession in America,” Rillo said in a statement Sunday, Aug.6.
He said it costs US $200, or around P11,000, for a nursing graduate to register to take the NCLEX, which is administered by America’s National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). This equates to a total cost of P199,144,000.
This is roughly the amount allocated to the New Manila International Airport under the proposed 2024 national budget.
“Our best estimate is that 46 percent of Philippine nursing graduates pass the NCLEX on their first take,” Rillo, a vice chairman of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education, said.
Rillo renewed his call for the House to pass his pet bill that seeks to increase by 75 percent the starting base pay of public nurses.
“Congress should not dilly-dally in raising the base pay of our public nurses who are being ‘pirated’ by other countries,” he said.
Under the neophyte solon's House Bill (HB) No. 5276, the starting monthly pay of nurses employed by the government would be bumped up to P63,997.
Over the Senate, Senator Sonny Angara has filed Senate Bill (SB) No. 638, which seeks to raise to P51,357 the entry-level monthly salary of public nurses.
Public nurses currently receive a starting monthly pay of only P36,619.