The health workers of Tondo Medical Center (TMC) held a snake rally and noise barrage inside the hospital premises to air their disappointment at the Department of Health (DOH) and the government over lack of concern and gross negligence for the well-being of healthcare personnel.
The protest is part of a series of actions by health workers in various public and private hospitals to call on the DOH to provide all the benefits stipulated in the Bayanihan law that have not been provided to health workers.
"We are so disappointed with the DOH and the Department of Budget and Management with the meager budget that they released for health workers' risk allowance. In DOH-retained hospitals alone, there are 67,000 total health workers. Therefore, that funding for special risk allowance is insufficient," Ernesto Bulanadi, President of TMC Employees' Association-Alliance of Health Workers (TMCEA-AHW) said on Friday, Aug. 27.
TMCEA-AHW also denounced the Bayanihan law's own provision regarding coverage of who should receive the SRA benefit, saying that it leads to multiple interpretations and becoming a barrier to health workers not being able to receive the benefits.
Under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, SRA is not only the COVID-19 benefits that a health worker may receive, but also meal, accommodation, and transportation (MAT) allowance, active hazard duty pay (AHDP), and the COVID-19 compensation benefit.
According to the group, TMC only received 30 percent of the funds intended for MAT allowance of its health workers covering the period of September to December 2020 as the remaining 70 percent or P14 million of the fund was allegedly withheld by the DOH.
TMCEA-AHW demanded the immediate release of the 70 percent of the budget covering the period of September to December 2020 intended for MAT allowance as well as the January to June 2021 MAT allowance to health workers; release AHDP benefit to all public health workers from January to June 2021; and release SRA to all health workers, both from public and private hospitals regardless of their status of employment.
"We are the living victims of this pandemic. DOH and government agencies did not act in accordance with the health emergency situation and cooperatively. The government's own strategy in the COVID-19 is flawed and the Bayanihan laws themselves are also flawed," Bulandi added.
On Aug. 21, President Duterte ordered the DOH and DBM 10 days to pay the health workers' benefits.
As of Aug. 25, the DBM has released P311 million funds for 20,000 public and private health workers' SRA.