Senators on Saturday prodded the Department of Health (DOH) to release the allowances and other benefits of health frontliners serving during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Senator Risa Hontiveros lamented the "unjust" delay in the release of the benefits for health workers under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Republic Act No. 11494), or Bayanihan 2 after workers at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), Philippine Heart Center (PHC), and the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) recently protested that they have not been receiving their allowances.
"Huwag nating pahirapan ang mga health worker na makuha ang benepisyong dapat sa kanila. Huwag sanang patuloy na ipagpakait pa ito sa kanila (Let's not make its difficult for our health workers to get the benefits they deserve. Let's not deprive them of that)," she said in an interview with DWIZ radio on February 6.
"Na-release na ang fund sa ilalim ng Bayanihan to Recover as One, 2021 na. Isang taon na ang pandemya puro pa rin lip service sa mga health workers natin. Nakakalungkot, let's not put false hope and give them what is due...Eh hindi pwedeng nagpapasalamat tayo sa kanilang kontribusyon ngunit hindi pa naibibigay ang kakarumpot nilang hazard pay at special risk allowance (Funds have been released, it's already 2021. It's been a year since the pandemic started yet we are still doing lip service. This is sad, let's not put false hopes and give them what is due. We cannot just thank them for their contributions while not giving them their allowances)," she added.
Senator Panfilo Lacson aso said this was not the first time that the DOH failed to compensate health workers on time. He said the DOH should be held liable for not implementing the law.
The government, Lacson said, should fulfill its mandate to distribute the cash allowances allocated for the health care workers.
"Laging banggit nang banggit ng frontliners tapos papabayaan din naman natin. Nasaan ang consistency?'Pag lip service ang nangibabaw at kulang sa aksyon, dapat nga 'di na nag-aannounce ginagaw na lang, eh (We keep mentioning our frontliners and yetignoreforn them. Where is the consistency? Lip service and inaction should not be prevailing, they should just be doing their mandate, not anymor announcing them)," he said.
The DOH had said that P53.48 billion were allocated in the Bayanihan 2 for the "support of healthcare workers, sustaining the drive of the DOH and keeping health care workers protected while at the same time preventing the influx of patients into hospitals."
Under the law, all health workers, public or private, directly catering to or in contact with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients should be given a special risk allowance.
Frontliners should also be given hazard pay and free insurance, accommodation, transportation and meals.
Those who will contract mild or severe coronavirus infection while in the line of duty, or die due to COVID-19, must also get compensation.