ILOILO CITY – The Department of Health (DOH) has assured the release of the Covid-19 allowance for health workers across the Western Visayas region.
“We are fast-tracking the processing and release of the One Covid-19 allowance (OCA) to all eligible public and private health care workers (HCWS) and non-HCWs in health facilities who have been involved in Covid-19 response,” said DOH-6 Director Adriano Suba-an.
More than 1,000 HCWs from Iloilo province have complained of the non-release of their Covid-19 allowance.
Dr. Maria Socorro Colmenares-Quiñon, chief health officer of the Iloilo provincial government, had earlier said that the DOH-6 downloads the fund from the national government.
Suba-an said the DOH-6 has inked with a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to release the fund directly to the concerned health facility or through a payroll via Landbank if it is a State-run hospital or health facility.
He added there are some delays in the release of the OCA as some have not fully submitted the requirements such as Daily Time Record (DTR), Landbank account numbers, or certificates of tax exemption.
Based on DOH-6 records, only 33,471 out of 12,3773 public HCWs received the OCA for January to June 2022.
As for the OCA of private health workers, DOH-6 has released 100 percent of the monthly requests from January to April 2022. A total of 48,985 private HCWs have received the OCA.
“We continue to appeal for understanding and assure health care workers of the continuing provision of necessary support and recognition to them,” Suba-an added.