"JPEPA Will Enslave Filipino Nurses and Caregivers!"- HEAD

Press Statement
20 February 2008

Scabs in a foreign land, slaves in their own. This is the sad fate that awaits Filipino nurses and caregivers if the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) is ratified by the Senate. This is the sad fate that the Arroyo administration is pushing for in exchange for greater revenues from remittances and illusory gains in trade investments.

According to Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD), a national organization of health professionals, workers, and students, the provisions of JPEPA ensure that Japan will enjoy the services of quality and competent Filipino health personnel without providing the attendant rights, compensation, and benefits.

"Under the pretext of stringent requirements, JPEPA institutionalizes 'labor casualization', where Filipino nurses and caregivers in Japan will be maintained at a "casual" status, thereby denying them their job tenure and due compensation." according to Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos, HEAD Secretary-General. "This anti-workers practice will be given a mantle of legality if JPEPA is ratified."

In fact, shorn of deceptive propaganda, the alleged job opportunities awaiting nurses and caregivers in Japan is nothing more than attempts of the Japanese gov't to skirt the issue of providing their own nurses and caregivers the compensation they demand. In short, Japan is hiring Filipino nurses and caregivers to do work that the Japanese gov't is unwilling to pay its own nurses and caregivers for!
"Our nurses and caregivers will be looked upon by their colleagues as scabs when they reach Japan." added Dr. Nisperos.

On the other hand, Dr. Darby Santiago, HEAD Vice-Chair, warned that because of patently onerous provisions of JPEPA, even when health related investments in the country are made, Filipino health workers will still be at the losing end.
"Under JPEPA, when Japanese investments set up health institutions in the Philippines, they can maintain Filipino health personnel as rank-and-file while reserving management and higher positions for Japanese nationals." said Dr. Santiago. "The names may be different but the end result of exploitation is the same: cheap labor in the Philippines, cheap labor in Japan."

"This is what happens when health personnel and services are put on the trading block, next to tuna, bananas, and other Philippine export products." continued Dr. Santiago. "Sadly, when Filipino nurses and caregivers are treated as commodities that can be bartered for investments/capital, the Arroyo gov't is competing in a race to the bottom."

For Dr. Nisperos, JPEPA sets a very bad precedent as a trade agreement and undermines the rights and welfare of thousands of health personnel working abroad. "Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has exploited the growing need and marketability of skilled Filipinos in the so-called 'global market'. World-class and globally-competitive should not mean enslavement to the neocolonial demands of developed countries."

For Dr. Santiago, "JPEPA is so heavily biased in favor of Japanese interests it constitutes a betrayal of national interests to which Mrs. Arroyo should be held accountable."

HEAD is calling for the Senate to junk JPEPA and put an end to the labor export policy of the Arroyo regime. "Instead of providing career opportunities and a better working environment for nurses to stay and serve in our country, Mrs. Arroyo has perpetuated the miserably state of our health care system and the slave wages of our health personnel, thereby effectively pushing them to seek greener pastures abroad. This must end." concluded Dr. Santiago. ###

References:
Dr. Darby Santiago
Vice-Chair, 0917 477 9230

Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos
Secretary-General, 0916 214 5724