Health workers, unions under the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) simultaneously launched protests at noon on April 8. They demand a living wage, job security, mass hiring of additional health workers, and free health services for all.

Participants include unions from the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP), and Philippine Heart Center (PHC), and Manila hospitals Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, San Lazaro Hospital, and Fabella Hospital.

“We have not felt the salary increase through Executive Order 64 because it was erased by cost of high living and tax deductions,” Philippine Heart Center Employees Association-AHW president Sally Ejes said. “Prices of goods in the market, such as rice, vegetables, meat, fish, and fruits, as well as gas, rise almost weekly.”

She said their demand as health workers is a meaningful salary increase, but the Marcos administration’s response was EO64, which only provided a meager and inhumane wage hike.

Marcos issued EO64 in August 2024, granting a paltry ₱530 increase for Salary Grade 1 Step 1 employees or a ₱26 daily raise. The order also granted a ₱7,000 health allowance for qualified staff, to be distributed in four tranches from 2024 to 2027.

Health workers also condemned Malacañang for refusing to prioritize the ₱200 wage hike proposal in Congress, even as the they believe this amount is insufficient. The AHW emphasized the need for national implementation of a living wage, currently set at ₱1,200 per day and ₱33,000 per month, as entry-level salary for all health workers in public and private sectors, as well as government employees. Meanwhile, they are pushing for a ₱50,000 entry salary for nurses and other allied health professionals in public and private sectors.

“We also demand the regularization of contractual health workers and mass hiring to address severe understaffing in public hospitals,” NKTI Employees Association-AHW president Jocelyn Guinto said. She noted there are a total of 1,753 contract of service workers, including in-house, outsourced, and regular contractuals at NKTI and PHC alone. “The titles may differ, but the scheme is the same,” Guinto added.

The AHW stated that while health workers and Filipinos suffer from economic and health crises, intense political clashes between former allies Marcos and Duterte continue, and widespread corruption in the bureaucracy persists. They stressed that they can rely only on their collective action.

The AHW and its affiliated unions will join the national protest action on May 1, international labor day, and on May 7, health workers’ day.