Quezon City 4th district Rep. Marvin Rillo (Rep. Rillo's Facebook)

Quezon City 4th district Rep. Marvin Rillo has renewed his call for the passage of a bill aiming to increase the starting base pay for public nurses by 75 percent as the Philippines is expected to have a shortage in nurses.

In a statement on International Nurses Day on May 12, Rillo expressed his alarm over the possible shortfall of health practitioners in the country because of overseas migration.

According to the lawmaker, a total of 6,879 Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) graduates from the Philippines took the United States (US) licensure examination for the first time from January to March 2024 in hopes of obtaining employment in America.

In 2023, a record-high 36,410 Filipino nursing graduates took the US licensure test for the first time, without counting repeaters.

“We expect a large number of Philippine nursing graduates to persist in pursuing their career aspirations in America and other foreign labor markets as long as we continue to underpay them here at home,” said Rillo, a vice chairperson of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education, 

Public nurses in the country currently receive a monthly salary of P36,619.

Under Rillo’s House Bill (HB) No. 5276, the starting pay would be bumped up to P63,997 per month.

A counterpart measure has already been filed in the Senate by Senator Sonny Angara. Under his Senate Bill (SB) No. 638, the entry-level pay of public nurses would be raised to P51,357 per month.

“Congress must substantially upgrade the starting base pay of our nurses now if we want to retain at least some of them for our public hospitals,” Rillo said.

Citing a report from the Department of Health (DOH), the congressman noted that public hospitals run by the DOH have up to 4,500 items for nurses that remain unfulfilled due to the lack of takers.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there will be a shortfall of 4.6 million nurses worldwide by 2030 if no action is taken.

“The shortfall of nurses in the Philippines is expected to be 249,843 by 2030, unless greater investment is made now to retain them in the local health sector,” the WHO report said.