The additional P888.12 million released by the Department of Budget and Management for the special risk allowance of health care workers will cover more than 97,000 frontliners, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Tuesday.
Vergeire said the DBM is set to issue the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) on Monday, after which the funds will be downloaded to hospitals as soon as possible.
“This will cover about 97,560 health care workers (for this batch’s SRA),” she said.
The Health department has yet to determine the number of workers who have not received their SRA as more health facilities are still submitting their list of eligible beneficiaries to the DOH’s regional offices, Vergeire said.
Public and private health workers directly catering to COVID-19 patients are entitled to an SRA not exceeding P5,000 per month, which will be pro-rated based on the number of days the health worker physically reported for work.
Health care workers on Friday called on the government to prioritize payments of delayed benefits before building a memorial wall depicting them as modern-day heroes.
“The best gesture is to give the appropriate benefits to our health care workers because that will truly show we are being valued,” Dr. Maricar Limpin, president of Philippine College of Physicians, said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
Several medical frontliners staged protests and threatened to file mass resignations as many have yet to receive pandemic benefits promised by the government.
The government will spend P2 million to P5 million to construct the memorial wall at the Libingan ng mga Bayani to honor health workers who have died while working on the front lines.
While the Alliance of Health Workers also welcomed the construction of a memorial wall, its president said the funding could be used for the payment of their unpaid benefits.
“They should pay attention to the health and safety and protection and welfare of health workers while they are alive,” AHW president Robert Mendoza said.
The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) called on the government to prioritize the people’s health and health workers’ welfare in the 2022 national budget deliberation especially since this pandemic may still extend to two years as projected by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III himself during a recent budget hearing.
The proposed COVID Response budget of P19 billion for next year is way below this year’s budget, which proved grossly inadequate and has cost lives to be sacrificed because of poor COVID-response and an extremely burdened health system near collapse with health workers’ lives and safety put at great risk, FNU said.
Duque said the DBM allocated only P19.68 billion for its COVID-19 initiatives or health system resilience projects in 2022 although the DOH’s original proposal was P73.99 billion.
“We originally proposed P73.99 billion, P50.41 billion of which will be for the meals, accommodation and transportation and life insurance of frontliners,” Duque said.
Duque said funds for the benefits of medical frontliners next year are covered by the proposed Bayanihan 3 bill, which is still pending at the Senate.