THE House committee on health yesterday approved in principle all bills which seek to ensure that all public and private health workers will receive benefits until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Congressmen approved in principle the various measures on the proposed “COVID-19 Benefits for Health workers Act of 2021,” which mandates that the benefits should remain available so long as the presidential declaration of national public health emergency is in place.
House Bills 9640, 10198, 10285, 10331, and 10365 were approved subject to consolidation and amendments. The bills all seek benefits, including special risk allowances (SRA), active duty hazard pay and insurance to both public and private health workers.
Health workers who contract mild or moderate COVID-19 will be given P15,000 each; P100,000 for severe or critical cases; and in case of death, the amount of P1 million to the heirs. On top of these, additional benefits that will cover psychiatric treatment for affected health workers will also be included as proposed by Rep. Tan.
In sponsoring House Bill No. 9640, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate said he filed the bill “in recognition of the crucial roles and contributions of the health workers amid the public health emergency.”
The measure seeks to grant SRA and active hazard duty pay to all health workers in public and private sector, and in other health facilities, regardless of employment status, including contractual employees in the form of job order, contract-of-service and human resources of health, and area of assignment, as well as those health workers who are working-from-home, isolated and quarantined due to COVID-19 disease and other any occurrence or imminent threat of an illness or health condition in the future.
Zarate noted that data from the Department of Health (DOH) shows that as of May 25, 2021, 18,539 health workers already got infected by the virus and 95 of them died as a result.
“For numerous times, the health workers aired their grievances over limited and substandard personal protective equipment (PPE), and the lack of manpower, facilities, medicines and medical supplies. With the militaristic, yet failed, pandemic response of the Duterte administration, the health workers asked for ‘timeout’ last August 2020 to slow down the spread of COVID-19 and provide them a breathing space in the fight against the pandemic,” he said.
The militant lawmaker said the current SRA and active hazard duty pay received by health workers are insufficient and limited, pointing out that President Duterte’s Administrative Order Nos. 35 and 36 provide that health workers are only entitled to SRA not exceeding P5,000 while the frontline human resources for health are entitled to active hazard duty pay not exceeding P3,000.
Moreover, he said based on DOH Memorandum No. 2021-0221, only public health workers catering to COVID-19 patients or providing COVID-19 healthcare response during the state of national emergency, medical and allied professionals, and administrative and support personnel are entitled to hazard pay, subsistence and laundry allowance.
Several benefits were given to health workers under Republic Act No. 11494, otherwise known as the “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act” or Bayanihan 2, which lapsed on June 30 this year.
The health panel chaired by Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan also approved various bills seeking to establish hospitals in local government units (LGUs).
