Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Teodoro Herbosa on Wednesday, July 3, said the government may be able to disburse P27 billion to settle unpaid Covid allowances for health workers across the country by the end of this year.
In a special pre-State of the Nation Address (SONA) televised interview, Herbosa said discussions within the department, particularly concerning the National Expenditure Program for the upcoming fiscal year, have been focused on addressing the issue of unpaid health emergency allowances (HEA) that have been outstanding since 2021.
Herbosa explained that because the allowance was classified as unprogrammed, there was no budget allocated for it.
However, he received assurance from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that a budget will be provided and efforts are underway to address this issue within the year.
“Sabi sa akin ng DBM magkaka-budget na. Mahahanapan na by this year. Good news iyon! Very, very good news (The DBM informed me that a budget will now be allocated. It will be addressed by this year. That's good news! Very, very good news),” Herbosa said.
During the interview, he recounted a conversation with Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, who informed him that the budget for outstanding HEA would not be included in the next fiscal year’s allocation due to the possibility of disbursing it within the current year.
“Sabi ko, ‘Bakit wala?’ [Sabi niya], ‘mukhang kaya na naming ibigay this year’ (I said, ‘Why isn’t it included?’ She said, ‘looks like we can give it this year’),” Herbosa shared.
“Mukhang maibibigay na ng national government iyong remaining P27 billion pa iyon eh na hindi pa namin na-allocate para mabayaran na lahat (It looks like the national government will be able to allocate the remaining P27 billion that we haven't allocated yet to settle everything),” he added.