Nursing students | Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Part IV of “A New Philippine Commonwealth” Series
FUNDING IS NOT ASSURED? There are worries that some supporters of the “Oplan Knightingale (OK) 44K” made known to this columnist. Foremost among the doubts is that the present national, congressional, and provincial leaders will not agree to allocate all the proceeds of the Value Added Tax (VAT) to cooperative investments. Yes, co-ops that are suggested for organization in all 44,000 barangays (barrios) of the Philippines, as proposed earlier in this series.
This writer replies that residents in all the barangays may use their political power to legally recall any local-government unit (LGU) official who fights the allocation of the entire VAT collections — as government investment — to the barangay co-ops. There can be a legitimate and peaceful exercise of the “ReVOTElution of H.O.P.E.”
For members of the Philippine Congress who participated in the “flood-control scandals” and other shenanigans, barangays can exert greater pressure on President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., to expedite the prosecution of erring public officials and their crony contractors. The voters must also start looking for qualified and honest wannabe real public servants to run in the 2028 election against all the elected officials (or their relatives or in-laws) involved in any government corruption.
Then we must remember that there will be a simultaneous campaign among Overseas Filipinos to support this advocacy. The OK campaign is already being conducted by 600,000 Filipino nurses, 22,000 Filipino physicians, and tens of thousands of other medical professionals in the United States. It is just a matter of maximizing the potential of Filipinos in healthcare. Seminars will present these investment opportunities to a federation of U.S. cooperatives, which will, in turn, invest in the barangay co-ops in the Philippines. Many of them believe that there will be more legal protection in U.S. and Canadian co-ops, along with more accountability and transparency. Of course, the co-ops in the Philippines will have more training on, and supervision (including online monitoring) done, on the so-called ATIC principles (Accountability, Transparency, Integrity, and Credibility).
The OK proponents will also tap the services of Numeriano Bouffard, who was mentioned in Part III of this series. The plan is to seek the help of the Federation of Philippine-American Chambers of Commerce (FPACC) Foundation, Inc., which Mr. Bouffard organized in Orlando, Florida. Let it spearhead a proposed Filipino-American federation of foundations and not-for-profit entities. Then the national federation will implement year-round fundraising drives. Details of this plan will be discussed in subsequent episodes of this series. To be organized is also a federation of Fil-Am cooperatives and credit unions.
“Oplan Knightingale (OK) 44K” Will Further Reduce the Number of Nurses in Local Hospitals? It is not true that new nurses will deplete the ranks of present Filipino Nightingales. The latest nursing students — after they graduate — are geared to fill a substantial number of the 13-million global shortage of nurses, as the World Health Organization forecasts. The result will be an oversupply of nurses for domestic needs.
“The OK plan is just the tip of a figurative iceberg of the Filipino love of labor and sacrifice for humanity, just like the late entertainer Joe Quirino used the Ilocano expression “OK ngarud” in his “Seeing Stars” TV show.”
Nursing students — after the first semester (or two) of a two-year course of Associate in Nursing — can also start to work as “nursing aides” or licensed caregivers, as done in many healthcare facilities in the United States. In fact, it will already be part of their clinical studies. They will receive compensation as volunteer-trainees.
It is projected that more than 400,000 new nursing students will enroll within three semesters under the “OK 44K” proposal. In fact, there will be an oversupply of semi-trained nursing students, nursing graduates, and board-certified nurses in the Philippines as this project develops and succeeds. The Philippines will soon be known as the world’s premier source of highly-skilled, board-certified nurses and other medical professionals.
MORE SOCIOECONOMIC VENTURES FOLLOW. In the meantime, Filipino nurses already working in foreign countries (outside of North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand) can be persuaded to join the “OK.” They can complete their BSN degree in North America. If they pass the Board exam in the U.S. or Canada immediately upon arrival, they can work as students while completing their third and fourth years of study. The said foreign countries may have to double or triple the present compensation for Filipino nurses they employ to prevent them from leaving for jobs in North America. Said foreign countries — even in the wealthiest countries in the Middle East — pay only an average of one-third of the salary a nurse earns, for instance, in the U.S. and Canada.
The plan is also to invite board-certified Filipino nurses who have completed their BSN to pursue advanced courses to become nurse practitioners in North America. Some can proceed to take courses in medicine, pharmacy, a master’s in public health (MPH), fitness medicine, or chiropractic or alternative lines of medicine. Then the siblings, other kin, or in-laws of Filipino medical professionals will follow — and make it easier — for them to pursue trailblazing non-medical jobs, starting in North America. The OK plan is just the tip of a figurative iceberg of the Filipino love of labor and sacrifice for humanity, just like the late entertainer Joe Quirino used the Ilocano expression “OK ngarud” in his “Seeing Stars” TV show.
