The P311 million contingency fund of the Department of Health (DOH) will be used to provide a special risk allowance (SRA) to an additional 20,000 health workers as medical groups began yesterday their 10-day countdown for the release of their benefits.
The Philippine Nurses Association and the Filipino Nurses United held President Rodrigo Duterte to his word that the DOH and the Budget department should be able to release the incentives and allowances due to health workers within 10 days.
The PNA said that its members would quit their jobs if the government is still unable to pay their benefits by September 1, 2021.
“We expect that by this time, they have started reviewing the list of health workers who will receive benefits. We expect that all health workers will be included here, not just the regular employees,” FNU president Maristela Abenojar said.
Aside from releasing the SRA, Abenojar said they expect the government to release other delayed benefits such as active hazard duty pay, allowances for meals, accommodation, and transportation, life insurance, and death and illness compensation.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, for her part, said the DOH had identified 20,156 health workers from the private and public sectors who would be added to the list of those who would receive the SRA.
“This is worth P311 million for the SRA of those on the additional list but that’s not final yet. We still need to wait for the final list to be submitted by facilities and regional offices,” she said.
Hospitals were given until Thursday this week to submit a list of additional health workers to be given the SRA. The list will then undergo validation by the DOH, said Vergeire.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will also be seeking the approval of the Office of the President to allow the DOH to use its contingency funds for the SRA.
Vergeire said one of the bottlenecks blocking the release of health workers’ SRA was the need for a memorandum of agreement between the DOH and local governments or private hospitals.
“That’s the only way that our regional office can transfer funds to them because they are not part of the DOH family,” she explained.
“We are discussing how we can be able to streamline processes to avoid having so many layers and speed up the release of the benefits,” she said.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier gave the DOH and DBM 10 days to release allowances and benefits due to medical frontliners.
Health worker groups have warned that they would stage a mass protest if their long-sought-after benefits are not released by the DOH.
Meanwhile, Malacanang assured nurses and other health workers of their pay as the government was now working out the papers for the release of their benefits.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque reiterated the appeal to nurses and medical workers not to resign amid the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, assuring them that their payment was already being processed.
Some 30,000 nurses work in the private sector while there are 13,000 contractual nurses nationwide, according to PNA.
For its part, the Department of Labor and Employment said it would send to Malacañang a recommendation to increase the pay and benefits of healthcare workers in private hospitals, which would benefit about 200,000 workers.
In an online forum, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said they were formulating a recommendation to make the benefits and pay of private medical workers similar to those in the public sector.