Philippines Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ezzedin Tago in conversation with Saudi Minister of Health Dr. Abdullah A. Al Rabeah in Riyadh. — Courtesy photo Riyadh — The Ministry of Health is recruiting more Filipino medicos, a press statement of the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines, issued here Sunday, has said. “The Saudi Ministry of Health is urgently looking for some 2000 qualified female Filipino nurses with specialization in various faculties,” Overseas Filipino Workers Abroad, an online employment agency, posted an advertisement on its website on Jan. 28. Philippine Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ezzedin Tago accompanied by second secretary and consul Roussel Reyes and labor attaché Albert Valenciano, had called on Saudi Minister of Health Dr. Abdullah A. Al Rabeah on Jan. 18 to express gratitude over the continued support extended to the Filipino medical professionals by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and the Ministry, an emailed statement of the Republic of Philippines has said. The ambassador thanked the Minister who headed a team of surgeons back in 2004, for conducting a successful operation on the Filipino conjoined twins, Princess Ann and Princess May Manzo. Hailing their services of Filipino medical professionals, Dr. Al Rabeeah said owing to their performance, their experience in the field has been excellent. The ambassador emphasized the desire to enhance his country's relations with the Kingdom as he discussed with Dr. Al Rabeah the status of the proposed MOH-DOLE training program for nurses. They also discussed other possibilities of cooperation in the medical profession, such as research and the academics. According to the statistics of the Saudi Ministry of Health, the Kingdom has provided employment to some 117,000 Filipinos in the medical sector, most of them nurses. In a 2011 statement, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) had stated that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was the “the most aggressive recruiter” of Philippine nursing professionals and personnel. The union had issued the statement amid reports that Filipinos were losing nursing positions in Saudi Arabia due to Saudization or Nitaqat.
