Duque also confirms that it's a significant rise from the last year's figure of 2000 doctors who went abroad.
The idea working abroad has become a lucrative option for the doctors, as a doctor working in a government hospital in the Philippines earns only 25,000 pesos equivalent to 446 dollars a month.
On the contrary, a doctor can take home around 8,000 dollars a month while working as nurse overseas.
But the mass exodus of doctors and nurses has created an extremely difficult situation for the health care system in Philippines. Duque has also said that a task force has been set up to observe the probable effect.
According to the AFP report, to stem the exodus, the team is also planning to introduce a bill that will require doctors to practice in the Philippines for at least three to four years before they look for a change abroad.
"I think the problem really is the migration of doctors. We have so many nurses now, more than enough to fill up the vacancies. But our doctors are leaving," AFP quoted Duque as saying.
University of the Philippines has recently carried out a survey only to find that more than 50,000 Filipino nurses went abroad to work between 2000 and 2003.
