MANILA — The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) on Tuesday said overseas demand for Filipino nurses was "actually good news" and that the country was taking steps to prevent a local shortage of healthcare professionals.

"The fact that our nurses are in demand abroad is actually good news because that means we produce world-class nurses. I think we should be worried if our professionals are not acceptable abroad," CHED Chairperson Prospero De Vera III said in a Palace briefing.

"That means our educational system is not good. So it's a good sign, we just have to manage it better by producing more nurses," he said when asked how government was addressing local brain drain in the healthcare sector.

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De Vera said government was working to increase the salary of nurses.

"There should also be an effort to reskill the existing ones and see how many of those who fail the licensure tests can be assisted to pass it," he said.

Health Secretary Ted Herbosa recently vowed to give nurses a competitive salary that would encourage them to stay in the Philippines.

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A group of private hospitals said they went into the COVID-19 pandemic with a 40 percent shortage of nurses.

Data gathered by the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group show that almost 6,000 Filipino nursing professionals went abroad despite a government-imposed deployment cap of 5,000 in 2020.

In the same year, COVID-19 restrictions and community lockdown forced the cancellation of the board exam.

Last April, a nurses' group reiterated its call for a P50,000 entry level salary and massive hiring to address understaffing.

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Video from PTV