Health workers and other health organizations held a "die-in-protest" in front of the Senate gate on Tuesday, Nov. 16, to assert and demand higher health budget appropriation and salary increase.

“The actual DOH budget allotment for the Office of the Secretary under the National Expenditure Program (NEP) is only P 157 Billion. This budget is a manifestation of the government’s insincerity to resolve the pandemic," Benjamin Santos, Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) national secretary-general, said.

"Likewise, the non-prioritization of health in the national budget appropriation is a gross and criminal neglect of the Duterte administration to ensure people’s health during this health crisis," Santos stressed.

Amid the worsening pandemic, AHW said "it's totally unacceptable that the Duterte administration managed to cut" the maintenance and other operating expense (MOOE) and provided zero budget for capital outlay (CO) of four government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) hospitals, 78 Department of Health (DOH)-retained hospitals, and the Philippine General Hospital, the biggest COVID-19 referral hospital in the country.

“Health budget cuts will only result in further weakening of public health as the government increasingly abandons its primary obligation to protect and promote the health of its citizenry. This has led the people dry of their already meager resources which are not even enough to support a decent life, what more to pay for their health care,” Santos added.

Health workers said the proposed P226-billion DOH budget "does not aim to address the chronic problem and issues of the country's health human resource," such as low salaries and job security.

They also reiterated their calls to increase health budgets by allotting P2.064 trillion to direct public health services and for COVID-19 response; restore the P1B MOOE budget cut of GOCC hospitals; and fund COVID-19 benefits amounting to P969B for special risk allowance (SRA), active hazard duty pay (AHDP), meal, accommodation, and transportation (MAT) allowance, and COVID-19 compensation benefits of all 1.8M health workers in the 2022 DOH budget.

“For almost two years now, we health workers are at the forefront risking our life and safety in fighting COVID-19 pandemic and many from our ranks have died due to the virulent virus. We are being called heroes but never been truly valued because until now our salaries remain low," he decried.

AHW likewise welcomed the move of the Senate to defund the National Task Force to End Local Communist Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) from P28B to P4B to realign the funds for the health workers' COVID-19 benefits and crucial pandemic response programs.