60,000 health workers got SRA; DOH awating DOJ opinion to give more

MANILA, Philippines — Over 60,000 health workers have so far received their special risk allowance (SRA) provided under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, but the Department of Health (DOH) is seeking the legal opinion of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release more.

During the Senate plenary debates on the proposed 2021 budget of the DOH on Wednesday, senators were told that a total of 60,682 healthcare workers had already received their SRA.

Of this number, 43,908 are regular employees and 16,774 are job order workers, according to Sen. Pia Cayetano, who was defending the DOH budget.

“But there are those who are unpaid — regular employees and job orders. There is a reason for that,” Cayetano said.

She said the department was seeking clarification from the DOJ and the Office of the Solicitor General if public health workers at the DOH’s central and regional offices were also entitled to receive SRAs under the Bayanihan law.

“There was a discussion about being a frontliner,” Cayetano said, referring to the debates during the crafting of the first Bayanihan law.

“I think the issue somehow revolves around that. There are obviously health workers who are not technically in the frontline — you know receiving patients. I don’t want to say more because I don’t really know the clear definition of frontliners and I think that is what is being clarified,” she added.

The issue on the healthcare workers’ SRA was raised by Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who underscored the need to provide support for medical frontliners.

“Without the necessary muscle or support for our frontliners, the virus cannot be managed effectively. Therefore, everything else, like a domino, will fall into place in terms of our inability to provide confidence and open our economy,” Pangilinan said.

“The support for out frontliners is critical,” he added.

Cayetano said she was told by the DOH, whose officials were physically present during the plenary session, that the agency would follow up on the legal opinion of the DOJ.

“They will follow up also with the DOJ and we hope it can be acted upon immediately,” she said.

Under the Bayanihan 2 law, the President is authorized to grant P15,000 in cash aid to healthcare workers who contract a mild infection of COVID-19 in the line of duty.

The law further mandates that healthcare workers who become severely-ill from COVID-19 in the line of duty receive P100,000. At the same time, cash assistance of P1 million should be granted to the family of medical workers who succumb to the disease.

Public and private health workers catering to coronavirus patients are also entitled to a COVID-19 special risk allowance.

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