NURSING SECTOR POSITION

STATEMENT ON THE JPEPA

The Philippine Nurses Association (PNA), after an extensive deliberation
on the merits of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement
(JPEPA), and considerably weighing the advantages and disadvantages of
the agreement on the welfare of Filipino nurses who may later on avail of
the arrangement pertinent to them, submits that:

a. The PNA is primarily and totally committed to upholding the welfare

and wellbeing of Filipino nurses in any setting, be it local or
international.

b. The PNA has always been at the forefront of any advocacy to

promote the interests of its member-nurses, especially in
consideration of providing decent and dignified employment
opportunities for them and protecting their rights.

c. While the PNA takes cognizance of the Philippine government’s

laudable effort to sign a mega-treaty with Japan on September 9,
2006 in Helsinki, aimed at further improving bilateral ties between
the two countries, the provisions of the JPEPA supposedly intended
to increase trade in goods and services between Japan and the
Philippines, are deemed contrary to a prevailing predisposition
among Japanese investors not to consider the Philippines as an
investment destination.

d. There are grey areas as regards the provisions relevant to the

movement of natural persons, which supposedly will allow freer
trade in services between Japan and the Philippines, such as those:

concerning market access to Philippine health care

professionals, in particular nurses and caregivers, in Japan.
Will such access be actually made available to Filipino nurses?
According to an official statement issued by the Japan Nurses
Association (JNA), there is no shortage of nurses in Japan.
Thus, JPEPA is not a solution to any so-called shortage but a
solution to a trade imbalance. JNA stressed that the Japanese
nurses still give the best care to Japanese patients. Indeed, it
is noted that for 2007, out of 50,766 Japanese nursing
graduates who took the licensure exams in Japan, 46,000
examinees passed, a 90.6% passing rate. Moreover, there are
at least 550,000 Japanese nurses who settle for other kinds of
work in Japan for a number of reasons.

concerning the toxic waste issue wherein tariff rates on all
waste products from Japan are allowed entry to the Philippines
at 0 rates. Is this the trade off for the supposed market access
to Filipino health care professionals going to Japan?

concerning the national treatment accorded to our nurses; the
safeguards to assure them of a decent work environment which
are not found in the agreement.

e. The disadvantages to Filipino nurses who wish to land jobs in Japan

under the JPEPA far outweigh the advantages, as evidenced by the
following:

The hassle of undergoing 6 months of language training before

a Filipino nurse can start work as a trainee, under the
supervision of a Japanese nurse;

Learning the language is not a guarantee that the Filipino nurse
will get the equivalent of the work status of the Japanese
nurse, unless the Filipino nurse passes the Japanese board
exam.

In the event the Filipino nurse fails the board exams, his/her
working visa may be extended only twice which means that the
maximum stay in Japan is only 3 years.

On the other hand, the Filipino caregiver, after 6 months of
language training, can already work in a health care facility or
a nursing home for the aged. However, under JPEPA, a
caregiver is required to have a bachelor’s degree and must be
certified as a caregiver by the Philippine government (which is
not the case for our caregivers).

The cost of living in Japan is one of the highest in the world.
Filipino nurses will not only make adjustments in terms of the
medium of communication and the culture but also the high
cost of living which will eat up a large chunk of whatever
difference in pay a nurse receives from working as a trainee in
a Japanese hospital.

f. Other countries were able to forge better bilateral arrangements, for

example, South Africa and UK (where the latter agreed to educate 3
doctors and 3 nurses for every South African doctor and nurse who
will be recruited to work in UK; UK will improve 10 nursing schools,
to include refurbishing facilities and laboratories and providing top of
the line equipment to South African schools and universities) and the
Poland-Netherlands Agreement (which could be a model for an
equitable arrangement where Poland sends 3,000 nurses to the
Netherlands and these nurses go back to Poland after 3 years of
service in the Netherlands and are given higher salaries through
subsidy from the Dutch government.)

g. There is actually no evident excitement among the nurses to queue

to the Japanese Embassy because as PNA has always been pointing
out – our nurses, if given the right compensation package, would not
want to leave the country to care for foreign nationals but stay here
to provide our own people with quality health care.
h. Given the above, the PNA strongly calls for a concerted effort to
JUNK JPEPA!! We call on the Philippine Senate to study each
provision of the JPEPA to assure the Filipino people that we are not
shortchanged and our nurses will neither be abused nor exploited
only because the Philippine government desires to push for a mega-
treaty that leaves no guarantee for the welfare of our medical
professionals. Further, we appeal for the full implementation of R.A.
9173 (Philippine Nursing Act of 2002) and the Magna Carta for Public
Health Workers as these relate to the provision of an acceptable
compensation package for Filipino nurses.