(MANILA BULLETIN)

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte hasn't forgotten about the plight of more than 20,000 healthcare workers (HCWs) who are still waiting on their Covid-19 allowances. “It is our hope that the Departments of Health (DOH) and of Budget and Management (DBM) would manage to scour the national budget for funds and tweak budgetary procedures to finally release almost P2 billion in delayed allowances due an estimated 20,000-plus medical frontliners,” Villafuerte said. The veteran solon is one of the authors of Republic Act (RA) 11712, which granted health emergency allowances (HEA) to HCWs. Citing a United Private Hospital Unions of the Philippines (UPHUP) report, Villafuerte said that 20,304 HCWs have yet to receive their mandated Covid-19 allowances and other benefits totaling P1.94 billion dating back to October 2021. The intended HCW-beneficiaries are scattered in 23 private hospitals in Metro Manila and in Batangas, Cavite, Cebu, and Davao del Sur, according to the UPHUP report. Villafuerte said one of the options being eyed by the DOH to speed up the release of the Covid-19 allowances and other benefits for HCWs was to amend its joint administrative order with the DBM by tapping authorized government depository banks to clear the way to the direct payment of the OCA and other benefits to the medical frontliners. Citing DOH data, the UPHUP claimed that just P26.9 billion or 64 percent of the P41.9 billion set aside under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA) or national budget had been released thus far by the government. Under RA No.11712, HCWs are entitled to a monthly HEA equivalent to P3,000 for healthworkers in low-risk areas; P6,000 for those in moderate-risk areas; and P9,000 for medial frontliners in high-risk places. HCWs are supposed to receive the benefits for the duration of the state of the calamity attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic.