A PHILIPPINE lawmaker on Wednesday urged higher entry-level salaries for public dentists, citing a shortage that leaves only one dentist serving every 48,130 Filipinos.
During the Department of Health’s budget hearing before the House Committee on Appropriations on Thursday, Assistant Minority Leader Rep. Jose Manuel T. “Chel” Diokno raised the issue of public dentists’ relatively lower salaries to Health Secretary Teodoro J. Herbosa.
Mr. Diokno noted that while a Nurse I receives Salary Grade 15, equivalent to a starting monthly salary of P36,619, government dentists start at Salary Grade 13, equivalent to P31,320, despite having longer years of study.
“Why are dentists at entry-level earning less?” Mr. Diokno said in Filipino.
The Health chief responded that the lower salary of dentists compared to Nurse I is based on the Salary Standardization Law of 2019 and as mandated by the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002.
Mr. Herbosa also noted that uncompetitive salaries are not limited to dentists but affect other government health workers as well.
“If you compare nurses’ salaries with those of other allied health professionals like medical technologists and radiologic technologists, the difference is significant,” Mr. Herbosa said.
“This salary grade I only discovered now, so I guess that is to be corrected as well.”
To address these issues, Mr. Herbosa is seeking additional funding from the Department of Budget and Management for dentists and other allied health professionals.
He has also assigned an undersecretary to oversee the country’s dentistry program and the proposal to revive the dental program amid the ongoing shortage of public dentists.
In August, Rep. Roman T. Romulo filed the Public Dentist Salary Modification Act, which seeks to increase the salary grades of public dentists.
Under House Bill 4051, entry-level Dentist I positions would be upgraded to Salary Grade 17, equivalent to a starting monthly salary of P43,030 based on the 2023 salary schedule.
Senator Francis G. Escudero also filed the Senate counterpart bill in June, which seeks to increase the current number of 2,369 public dentists. — Edg Adrian A. Eva