Villar bill to set up hospital for OFWs

A bill was filed in Congress seeking the establishment of a hospital for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

In sponsoring the bill, Senate President Pro Tempore Manuel Villar Jr. said the rising cases of OFWs with AIDS now require a medical facility to look after their health.

"Filipinos working overseas subject themselves to various health risks while they are away from their families," he said. "Furthermore, being citizens in a foreign land, they may not be granted equal access to medical care."

Villar said a medical center would be "a small favor" for the $8 billion that OFWs contribute to the economy every year through remittances.

"The increasing number of OFWs shows that we need to provide this sector of our population more attention and significance," he said.

Villar said the hospital would also undertake a research of illnesses common to OFWs and how these could be avoided, and that contributions to the facility would be exempted from income tax.

Once passed into law, the bill would earmark P500 million from the National Treasury for the initial operations and maintenance of the proposed hospital, Villar added.

Meanwhile, recruitment agencies warned yesterday the country may lose about $720 million in remittances if Filipino nurses do not improve their English proficiency and the government fails to counter China’s move to deploy nurses in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Industry leaders said China is setting up English-language schools to prepare 300,000 Chinese nurses for employment in American and British hospitals and nursing homes. –Aurea Calica, Mayen Jaymalin