As President Duterte paid tribute to health care workers on National Heroes Day for battling COVID-19, a group of them urged him to double their salaries, just as he did for policemen.
“If President Duterte can double the salary of policemen, I hope during the pandemic, he will have the political will to double the salary of our health workers,” said Robert Mendoza, president of the Alliance of Health Workers, which has launched protests to demand the payment of long overdue benefits.
Mendoza said health workers have been risking their own lives in fighting the coronavirus and saving lives of patients.
Some health workers, he said, have yet to receive their special risk allowance (SRA) and other benefits, prompting them to hold rallies, noise barrages and walkouts.
“The President calls us heroes, but it’s only up to that point. When it comes to health, safety, and benefits, we don’t receive care from the President and the Department of Health (DOH),” Mendoza said.
Health workers and labor readers on Monday warned that if the Palace continues to back the embattled Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, they will be forced to oust him from office themselves.
The workers in major hospitals held simultaneous protests Monday to demand the immediate release of benefits due them under the Bayanihan law.
The health care workers also demanded the dissolution of the DOH Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD) for its ineptitude in fulfilling its mandate to the medical frontliners.
The protests, they said, were only preparatory to their planned National Day of Action for the Protection of Health Care Workers in the first week of September.
Meanwhile, Senator Joel Villanueva said funds for the two special pay allowances for medical front liners should be rolled over to next year’s national budget.
He also suggested a larger allocation for this purpose in 2022, so that health workers can receive larger amounts.
An increase in the appropriations for the SRA and active duty hazard pay (ADHP), he explained, would allow more health workers to receive the benefits they rightfully deserve, said Villanueva, chairman of the Senate labor committee.
He said current rules and fund limitations bar certain types of contractual workers from getting additional compensation for dangerous work, despite facing the same hazards their colleagues are exposed to.
“The virus does not discriminate. Why does the government distinguish on who to pay or not?” he said.
Villanueva said a bigger appropriation for AHDP and SRA would lead to higher rates and cover more health workers, who should receive them promptly under liberalized rules.
Initially authorized under the Bayanihan laws, AHDP is given to public health workers, while the SRA covers health workers in public and private medical institutions
Because a public health worker cannot receive more than P3,000 a month in AHDP, the maximum daily availment is P136 a day, Villanueva said.
In the case of the SRA, the monthly pay out of the ceiling of P5,000 comes up to about P227 daily compensation for “COVID ward duty, which is one of the world’s most dangerous workplaces today,” he said.
Villanueva said such pay rates should now change, the same way that the virus has mutated.
As to how much the increase will be, Villanueva said “the Senate, for sure, will collectively propose it once the supporting data are made available during the hearings for the 2022 national budget.”
But he said “a 100-percent increase” in the SRA and the hazard pay can be the starting point of the discussion.
Senator Risa Hontiveros said this was the second “National Heroes Day” during a pandemic.
With the many heroic deeds of health workers and frontliners, Hontiveros said, they need more than just the clapping of our hands, the salute and recognition.
“Let us compensate for their relentless efforts by pushing their rights and giving benefits due to them,” she said.
She noted that the hazard pay and SRA are more than a list of numbers and decimals in a spreadsheet.
“These are social protections our government promised them for their service, and they are within their rights to demand them,” she added.
“We, at the Senate, are working to correct this financial injustice,” she said, noting that healthcare workers are essential, not sacrificial.
“I am calling on the administration to do what is right by our frontliners and put an end to chronic indifference and ill-conceived policies. Citizens who have done their best to help our country live through this pandemic need more than patronizing words,” she said.
Joining Monday’s protests were unions from St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City, Metropolitan General Hospital, The Medical City, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Cardinal Santos Medical Center and Calamba Medical Center.
As they marked along E. Rodriguez Avenue, Jao Clumia, president of the St. Luke’s Medical Center Employees Association said workers have yet to receive their benefits under the Bayanihan 2 law, but now that has lapsed.
“The investigations held at both chambers of Congress have repeatedly identified the neglect of the Department of Health –Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD) and yet Secretary Francisco Duque and his clique have remained unresponsive to our demands,” he said.
Clumia said all they ever hear from Duque are excuses and finger pointing.
“Despite the holiday, we have nothing to celebrate. We have always been referred to as ‘modern heroes’ for our hard work and dedication despite the worsening pandemic are now in the streets to demand benefits for all health care workers,” said Donell Siazon, union president of the University of Santo Tomas Hospital.
“We are outraged at the injustice and systematic neglect inflicted upon us by the government.”
The protesters pushed for the immediate release of their SRA, meals, accommodation and travel allowances, life insurance and other benefits under Bayanihan 2 and the inclusion of all hospital employees in the coverage of the SRA.
They also demanded the removal of Duque from office.
Other groups, meanwhile, marched to support the Commission on Audit (COA), which has exposed DOH mismanagement of COVID-19 funds.
Health workers from the National Kidney and Transplant Institute and other government-owned and controlled corporations held a series of protest actions earlier this year before they finally received their benefits.
But so far, the government has not released meal, accommodation allowances from Dec. 20, 2020 to June 2021, the SRA for outsource employees such as janitors, guards, and other utility workers, from September 2020 to June 2021, and active hazard duty pay from January to June 2021.
Health workers were unimpressed by the President’s tribute to them.
“With all due respect Mr. President, we appreciate your compliments and recognition as we combat this war but what we need right now is your 100 percent support and sincere protection so that we can further improve our better services to our fellow countrymen,” said Edwin Pacheco, president, National Kidney and Transplant Institute Employees Association- Alliance of Health Workers.
Earlier, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire urged the health workers not to launch their protests.
“If we are heroes for you, why has it been a year now we are still here on the street calling and shouting for the immediate release of our hard-earned COVID-19 benefits? Worst, many from our ranks have succumbed with the virus,” Pacheco said.
NKTIEA-AHW said that from December 2020 up to present, there 51 of their health workers have filed for early retirement and resigned from their posts.
“We have been demanding the mass hiring of regular health workers since the pandemic started. Even without the call for mass resignation, many from our ranks have already resigned and retired early for fear of being infected with the virus,” he said.