DOH needs P141 billion for health workers

Health workers. Artwork by Ed Lustan

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) needs at least P76 billion to cover the mandatory COVID-19 benefits and allowances of more than 865,000 health workers for the whole of 2023, in addition to P65 billion for their back pay in the last two years, or a total of P141 billion.

Under next year’s proposed national budget, however, the programmed funds for “public health emergency benefits and allowances’’ amount to only P20 billion, or just 10 percent of the DOH’s total proposed budget of P196 billion.

Of the P20-billion allocation, the bulk or P19 billion is for the health frontliners’ Health Emergency Allowance while the remaining P1 billion will go to their COVID-19 death and sickness compensation package.

According to Health Undersecretary Kenneth Ronquillo, the P20 billion would be “inadequate” as the amount would cover only six months of the benefits health workers were entitled to under Republic Act No. 11712, which was signed in April this year.

At a hearing of the House committee on health on Wednesday, Ronquillo said that another P19 billion in unprogrammed funds for the said benefits would be set aside.

Unprogrammed funds are “standby appropriations” parked in state coffers until these need to be tapped to cover “unexpected expenses.”

But even with the unprogrammed funds, the proposed allocation for the COVID-19 benefits of health workers would still be insufficient, he added.

“This funding is inadequate as we will be needing a total of P76 billion requirement for the entire year,” he told lawmakers.

“Likewise, an additional P65 billion is unfunded in the 2023 [National Expenditure Program] for the payment of arrears for 2021 to 2022,” Ronquillo said.

Release benefits

Various health worker associations and unions have called on the DOH and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to fund and release the COVID-19 benefits due them during the pandemic, saying that some of them have yet to receive even a “single cent.”

The DOH, however, said that with the funds allotted for their benefits already depleted, it was waiting for the DBM to release additional allocations. The DBM, however, placed the blame on the DOH, saying it has yet to provide the documentary requirements for the release of the funds.

In the same hearing, the DOH bared its proposed priority legislation for the next six years, including the creation of the Philippine Center for Disease and Prevention Control, the Public Health Emergencies and Emerging and Re-emerging Diseases Response Act, the e-Health System and Services Act, the Drugs and Medicines Price Regulation Act, and salary standardization for the Human Resource for Health Network.

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