A TASK force made up of Cabinet officials will review an order barring Filipino health workers from leaving the country as it battles the coronavirus pandemic that has sickened more than 4,000 people after critics questioned its legality.

“All the task force members will issue a position on this,” task force spokesman and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei B. Nograles said at a briefing on Sunday.

In an order dated April 2, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) suspended the deployment of doctors and nurses while the country is in a state of national emergency.

Also covered by the ban are microbiologists, molecular biologists, medical technologists, clinical analysts, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, laboratory and X-ray technicians, nursing aids, medical equipment operators health supervisors and hospital equipment repair men.

POEA also suspended negotiations for government-to-government deployment of health workers.

It said the country’s health facilities, personnel and other resources are under severe strain due to the rising number of persons affected by the COVID-19 virus, according to the order signed by Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, who heads the POEA board.

The Department of Health yesterday reported 220 more COVID-19 infections, bringing the total to 4,648.

Fifty more patients died, raising the death toll to 297, it said in a bulletin. Forty more patients recovered, bringing the total of those who have gotten well to 197, it added.

The Philippines was 290,000 short of health workers last year, which was aggravated by the migration of 13,000 health professionals, POEA said earlier, citing a Human Resources for Health Network (HRHN) report.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. said the deployment ban violates citizens’ right to travel.

“We will fight the ban in the Inter-Agency Task Force,” he said in a social media post. “We will fight the ban in the Cabinet. We will never surrender our constitutional right to travel and our contractual right to work where there is need for our work.”

British Ambassador to the Philippines Daniel Pruce had reached out to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) after Filipino health workers employed by the United Kingdom’s National Health Service were barred from leaving the country.

Mr. Bello had said among those who had voted in favor of the POEA order was a representative from the DFA.

But Mr. Locsin said DFA had no vote in the POEA governing board. “The DFA representative’s views were ignored,” he said in a separate social media post on Saturday.

“With no vote, he couldn’t do anything but invoke standing IATF resolution excluding OFWs with work contracts from any restriction or ban,” Mr. Locsin said, adding that he would raise the matter during Monday’s task force meeting.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said health care workers should prioritize serving the country, noting that the state has given them benefits during the health crisis.

“They’re being given allowances and hazard pay,” he said in a mobile-phone message yesterday. “They should serve their own country first.”

The president on March 16 ordered that Luzon be locked down, suspending classes, work and public transportation to contain the pandemic. He later extended the month-long lockdown by two more weeks until April 30. — Gillian M. Cortez, Charmaine A. Tadalan and Vann Marlo M. Villegas

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