President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the lifting of the temporary ban on the deployment of healthcare workers abroad but with an annual cap of 5,000 starting next year, Malacanang said on Monday.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the decision was reached following the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.

Those who are allowed again to work abroad are nurses and nursing assistants or aides.

"The President also approved the placing of annual deployment ceiling of 5,000 new hires for healthcare workers in all the countries that they will be deployed starting January 1 of next year," Roque said in a televised press briefing in Davao City.

He said Duterte lifted the temporary ban to "balance the interest" on the need to have nurses and nursing assistants or aides in the country and the demand for Filipino workers abroad.

"The lifting of the deployment ban on health workers is in accordance with the government's policy to have full employment, uplift the standard of living, and improve the quality of life of all," he said.

Roque said healthcare workers could also practice their profession while improving the lives of their families and the local economy.

Last April, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration issued a board resolution temporarily suspending the deployment of healthcare workers, including nurses and nursing assistants or aides after Duterte declared a state of national emergency due to coronavirus pandemic.

The nurses and nursing assistants or aides are among the 14 identified mission critical skills included in the temporary ban. Celerina Monte/DMS