📷: Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital | FB
The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) salutes the courageous stand of nurses and health workers at the Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital (ASMGH) in Antique, who have gone on strike to protest the unconscionable four-month delay in their salaries. Around 60 contract-of-service employees—including nurses who make up nearly half of the hospital’s workforce—have been forced to take this difficult but justified action.
These workers render essential, life-saving services, yet have been deprived of their own lifeline—their wages—for months. A few days’ delay may be tolerable, but four months is inhumane, especially for contractual employees already burdened by job insecurity and lack of benefits.
The provincial government’s response reveals a gross failure of governance. Despite reportedly available funds, officials have given flimsy excuses for the delay. Worse, the governor has threatened the workers with non-renewal of contracts for “disrupting public service”—a clear act of intimidation that exposes the local government’s negligence and insensitivity.
The right to strike is enshrined in the Constitution and Labor Code. When government fails to uphold workers’ basic rights, striking becomes a legitimate and moral recourse. The prolonged withholding of salaries is not only a labor violation but an act of economic injustice that deprives families of food, transport, schooling, and other basic needs.
This situation reflects a deeper problem: the continued contractualization of essential health personnel. Nurses and other health workers, whose labor sustains the people’s health, should long have been made regular with job security and fair pay.
The FNU condemns this gross neglect by the local government of Antique and calls for the immediate payment of all delayed salaries, the regularization of contractual health workers, and full accountability from those responsible. Similar cases persist across many localities—where health workers bear heavy workloads and low pay while the government fails to meet even its most basic obligations.
In a time of rampant corruption and plunder, this incident mirrors how ordinary public servants are made to suffer while those in power enjoy privilege. The government’s epic failure to ensure timely and just compensation for nurses and health workers is both a moral and political scandal.
The FNU stands in full solidarity with the striking health workers of ASMGH. Their struggle is a fight not only for their rightful pay but for respect, fairness, and the recognition of the invaluable role they play in upholding the people’s health. #
