REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bill No._4293

INTRODUCED BY HON. CATALINA C. BAGASINA
Association of Laborers and Employees (ALE) Party-list

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This bill seeks to penalize and criminalize money-making schemes of big
hospitals through collection of affiliation fees from registered nurses who wish to work
for their hospitals in exchange for training and certifications.

This bill ensures that every understaffed hospital must hire the nursing applicants
as regular employees and avoid from collecting affiliation fees to ensure their
employment opportunities. Many private and public hospitals remain understaffed and
they do not meet the required patient to nurse ratio required by the government, but
they still continue to collect affiliation fees from struggling nursing graduates. They take
advantage of the mandatory two-year work experience requirement for employment
abroad so the applicants are left with no choice but to pay the fees in exchange for
experience despite the fact that the hiring hospitals are understaffed.

This measure will give equal opportunities to all nursing graduates. It is designed
to level the playing field among nurses who cannot afford to pay the affiliation fees
collected by some greedy hospitals in exchange for certification and job experience.

The act of penalizing and criminalizing the collection of affiliation fees will not
only open doors for equal employment but will stop the rampant practice of abuses
through money-making schemes devised by some hospitals in the country.

In view of the foregoing, the approval of this bill is earnestly sought.

CATALINA C. BAGASINA


REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bill No.__£293

INTRODUCED BY HON. CATALINA C. BAGASINA
Association of Laborers and Employees (ALE) Party-list

AN ACT
DEFINING AND PENALIZING THE PRACTICE OF COLLECTING AFFILIATION
FEES OF PUBLIC OR PRIVATE HOSPITALS FROM REGISTERED NURSES
NATIONWIDE IN EXCHANGE FOR JOB EXPERIENCE.

Be it enacted by Senate and the House of Representatives of the Republic of the
Philippines in Congress Assembled:

Section 1. Title. This act shall be known as the “An act
defining and penalizing the practice of collecting affiliation fees of public or private
hospitals from registered nurses nationwide in exchange for job experience”.

Section 2. Declaration of Policy. The State values the employment opportunity of
every human person and guarantees full protection to Labor. The highest priority shall
be given to the enactment of measures for the enhancement of the right of all people to
life which includes equal employment opportunities to all registered nurses nationwide.

Section 3. Definition. For purposes of this Act, the following term shall mean:

Affiliation fee — is the amount paid by a registered nurse by an accommodating
hospital in exchange of certain number of hours of duty of the former to the latter.
It refers to fees collected by the hospitals to allow unemployed registered nurses to

work for them for free in exchange for job experience. This is a money-making scheme
for understaffed hospitals to hire nurses through affiliation arrangement so as to avoid
hiring regular nurses and thereby cutting down their operational costs. Instead of
paying these new nurses of their salaries, the new nurses pay the hospital for job
experience. Such act is akin to syndicated estafa under the Special Penal Law.


Section 4. Liability of Administrator, Hospital Officers and Superiors. The
Administrator, Hospital Officers and Superiors or the equivalent hereof who has the
power, opportunity or authority to enter affiliation programs with registered nurses or
with schools, colleges and universities whether deliberately or due to negligence shall
be punished with Prision Mayor in its maximum period.

Aside from Hospital Officers, Those who cooperated in the act of pursuing to enter or
collecting fees for a nursing affiliation program, those who allowed such act, or those
who cooperated in the execution such act shall also be punished with Prision Mayor in

its maximum period.

The penalty of Prision Mayor in its medium period shall be imposed on those who
attempt to commit the act of collecting affiliation fees and the this includes the following:
By themselves profiting from or assisting the offender to profit; By concealing the act of
affiliation, and/or destroying the effects or instruments thereof, in order to prevent its
discovery; By harboring, concealing, or assisting in the escape of the offenders, whether
principals or accomplices, in the act of collecting affiliation fees.

Section 5. Implementing Rules and Regulations. The Department of Justice (DOJ)
and Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) in regular monitoring and close coordination
with other Nursing Organizations shall promulgate the rules and regulations for the
effective implementation of this Act, and shall ensure the full public dissemination of
such.

Section 6. Repealing Clause. All laws, decrees, executive orders, rules and
regulations and other issuances or parts thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this
Act are hereby repealed or amended accordingly.

Section 7. Separability Clause. If, for any reason, any section or provision of this Act
is declared unconstitutional or invalid, such other sections or provisions not affected
thereby shall remain in full force and effect.

Section 8. Effectivity. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days upon its publication in
the Official Gazette or in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation.

Approved.