Compensation for health workers not in Bayanihan 3

MANILA, Philippines — As more hospital workers fall ill and lose their lives battling the coronavirus, a question begs to be asked: What would they leave their families behind?

A bill to succeed the current Bayanihan 2 has made no mention of such benefits, specifically the P1 million compensation for the heir of a fallen health worker.

A draft of House Bill No. 8628, or the Bayanihan to Arise as One Act (Bayanihan 3), introduced by Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, is focused on economic recovery, such as providing small business subsidies, agricultural loans, unemployment allowances and typhoon rehabilitation.

Republic Act No. 11494, or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, is set to expire on June 30, after President Duterte in January extended the availability of P165-billion fund for the pandemic response.

Its Section 4 provides for the P1 million death claim or benefits (P100,000 for severe and critical case and P15,000 for mild to moderate) for a hospital worker who gets infected.

The law states that “this subsection shall survive the expiration of this Act for as long as a health worker contracts mild or severe COVID-19 infection while in the line of duty or dies while fighting during the state of national emergency.”

Asked what happens after the law expires and why the benefits are no longer stated in the next Bayanihan, Quimbo said “we can include in [Bayanihan] 3 certain provisions in Bayanihan 1 [and] 2, such as compensation and protection of our front-liners.”

She said other bills related to this were also still being consolidated.