About 200 nurses and public health workers in protective suits stage a “sit-down protest’’ outside the Department of Health building in Manila on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, the day the Bayanihan 2 stimulus spending law lapsed. The workers are demanding the release of their benefits, including a monthly P3,000 COVID-19 hazard pay. (File photo by RICHARD A. REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III assured senators on Wednesday that the Department of Health (DOH) would look into its savings that it might realign to fund the special risk allowances (SRA) to healthcare workers.
Duque made the assurance about two months after the expiration of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act — or Bayanihan 2 — which provided for the SRA.
Since then, many healthcare workers had been saying they had not received their SRA.
“Certainly, we will look into freeing up some of the funds since today there is still ongoing procurement. Aayusin namin [We will fix it],” Duque told the Senate blue ribbon committee, which is investigating the “deficiencies” flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) in the use of the DOH pandemic funds.
“I cannot give you the clear answer right now because we have to look into it — how we can realign it. I’m going to order an immediate determination of that amount,” he added.
Before this, Filipino Nurses United (FNU) Secretary-General Jocelyn Andamo presented to senators a list showing some of the hospitals nationwide where nurses had not received benefits promised to them.
Filipino Nurses United presented this table at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. (Screengrab from Senate PRIB livestream)
In June, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released the P9.02-billion allotted for another tranche of SRA for healthcare workers.
READ: P9 billion released for health workers’ special risk allowance – DBM
The DOH, on the other hand, said it released the budget on the same day to its regional offices. But many healthcare workers said they had not received anything.
READ: 2 things constant in PH COVID saga: Delayed pay, heavier burden for health care workers
With the expiration of the Bayanihan 2, DBM officer-in-charge Tina Rose Marie Canda said the DBM could no longer provide “any amount for the SRA at the moment” without a law.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon then proposed the inclusion of funding for the SRA of healthcare workers under the 2022 national budget, which Congress will begin tackling soon.
“We can just make amendments to the 2022 budget. We’re just talking about five months. As soon as we pass the budget, it will be available,” Drilon said.
Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the blue ribbon panel, agreed this could be a possibility, but he said waiting until a budget could be passed might not be ideal.
Sen. Sonny Angara, meanwhile, pointed out that the provision of benefits for healthcare workers was still authorized “so long as national emergency as declared by the president is enforced” even as most of the sections under Bayanihan 2 had already expired.
“As long as that national emergency is there, then there is legal basis under Bayanihan 2 to give those benefits,” Angara said.