Bicam OKs P10K risk allowance for private health workers — Cayetano

MANILA, Philippines — The bicameral conference committee on the proposed Bayanihan to Recover As One Act has adopted the proposal to include  private healthcare workers treating coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients among the recipients of a P10,000 special risk allowance, House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said Thursday.

Cayetano said the proposal is a part of the House version of the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act, also known as Bayanihan 2, which seeks to allocate a total of P10.5 billion for various compensations for medical frontliners, including the aforementioned P10,000 COVID-19 special risk allowance for healthcare workers in both the public and private sector.

Under Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which expired last June, the said allowance was only provided to public healthcare workers.

However, Cayetano said that the efforts of all healthcare workers—both from public and private—should be equally acknowledged.

“In any crisis, the government is forced to prioritize with limited resources; you will have to ask the private sectors to, as much as they can, manage it on their own so the most disadvantaged ones can be accommodated. But at this point in this pandemic, there is hardly that distinction,” Cayetano said in a statement.

“No amount of money could repay the blood, sweat, and tears shed by our health workers, but taking care of those extra things for them can go a long way. And it will allow them to focus more on taking care of our kababayans,” the House Speaker added.

The P10.5 billion proposed budget for medical compensation also includes the institutionalization of free life insurance,  accommodation, transportation, and meals for all public and private medical frontliners for the duration of the pandemic.

Further, the committee also adopted the provision granting P100,000 in compensation for healthcare workers in the public and private sector who have contracted severe COVID-19 infection while in the line of duty from February 1, 2020 onwards.

If enacted, Bayanihan 2 will allocate funding of around P162 billion for COVID-19 response and resilient recovery programs.

“Basically we are targeting two things: first, to come up with short-term solutions so we can effectively manage the pandemic, and second, to design measures in response to the crisis in a way that will bring long-term positive effects to our economy moving forward,” Cayetano said.

Senator Sonny Angara, one of the heads of the bicameral conference committee, said that bicam would likely finish reconciling the disagreeing provisions of the Senate and House versions of the Bayanihan 2 on Wednesday night.

For its part, the Senate is expected to ratify its version of the bill on Thursday. No schedule has been set yet for the lower chamber.

EDV