Hontiveros hits 1-day deadline for health workers to pass requirements for hazard pay

MANILA, Philippines — “Parang nananadya na yata [It seems they are doing this deliberately].”

Senator Risa Hontiveros made this remark on Wednesday as she lamented the one-day deadline given to health workers in the private sector to submit requirements for active duty hazard pay and special risk allowance.

“Not only have our health workers been put under inhumane conditions in this pandemic, but it looks like we’re also exploiting them,” Hontiveros  said in a statement.

“If the reports are true, bakit natin ipinagkakait ang kakarampot na suweldo at benepisyo [why are we withholding the small amount of wage and benefits] that is rightfully theirs? It’s time to put an end to these false hopes,” she added.

Hontiveros said this after unions of several major private hospitals in Metro Manila asked Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to extend the “arbitrary deadline” also this Wednesday, December 9, to submit all the requirements to receive active duty hazard pay and special risk allowance.

The unions stressed that it is impossible to prepare and submit all the required documents in one day.

Hontiveros joined the calls of private health workers for a one-week extension on the deadline.

“We join the calls of our private health workers for a one week extension, which is just and reasonable especially that it is mandated under the Bayanihan to Recover Act (BARO) that they receive compensation for services rendered until December 19,” she said.

She added that health workers should not find it hard to claim the benefits that are due to them.

Hontiveros earlier filed a Senate resolution seeking inquiry on the “bottlenecks” that continue to prevent the timely release of COVID-19 hazard pay and special risk allowance for healthcare workers.

“…408,790 Filipinos have recovered from COVID-19. We have no one else to thank but our health workers,” the senator said.

JPV