DOH scrambles to beat Duterte deadline on release of virus-hit health workers’ compensation

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is in a race against time as it scrambles to beat the Tuesday deadline imposed by President Rodrigo Duterte for the release of compensation intended to families of healthcare workers who died or became severely ill from COVID-19.

Under Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, health workers who become severely ill in the line of duty are to get compensation of P100,000, while the family of those who died of COVID-19 in the line of duty should get P1 million.

However, it was recently bared that the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) on the said provision have yet to be finalized, drawing the ire of several lawmakers and Duterte, who then gave DOH and other concerned government agencies until today, June 9 to release the compensation for COVID-19-hit health workers.

According to DOH spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire, six out of the 32 families of health workers died of the coronavirus disease have yet to receive their P1-million compensation due to varying reasons.

Meanwhile, 10 out of the 24 health workers who contracted severe COVID-19 have received their P100,000 benefits.

“Lahat ito pinipilit nating ibigay sa araw na ito. Binigyan kami hanggang end of business day today para makumpleto namin yan. Ngayon kung hindi matapos at hindi makukumpleto ito ay sa kadahilanan na meron tayng unforeseen circumstance dito sa mga binigyan natin,” Vergeire said an online media forum Tuesday morning.

(We are striving to release all the check today. We were given until the end of business hours today to complete that. Now if it is not completed, it is because of some unforeseen circumstances.)

The DOH official said that of the six families of felled health workers, two of them are currently abroad, two need to submit more documents while the other two have questionable causes of death.

Vergeire said the Health Department is now verifying the cause of death of the two health workers to ascertain whether they are eligible for the compensation.

“Ginagawan natin lahat ng paraan. Hopefully by the end of the day maibigay natin lahat sa mga dapat bigyan,” she added.

(We are doing everything we can. Hopefully, by the end of the day we can release all the compensation to the recipients.)

Currently, there are 2,736 health workers in the Philippines who were infected with the novel coronavirus, of the number, 32 have died.

EDV