TAGUIG Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano yesterday filed House Bill No. 10112 seeking to increase the compensation and benefits of barangay health workers (BHWs) by changing their volunteer status to government workers.
Cayetano’s bill proposes to establish the Special Barangay Health Workers Assistance Program under the Department of Health. The program will provide additional financial and technical assistance, training, and other forms of support to BHWs of selected local government units (LGUs).
BHWs currently receive allowances for their work as volunteers.
The proposed HBN 10112 seeks to increase the compensation that will be sourced from the additional funds that LGUs will receive upon the implementation of the Supreme Court’s Mandanas-Garcia ruling which has clarified that custom duties and several other taxes should be included in the just share of LGUs in the collection of national taxes.
“Therefore, there’s an additional source of funds for the salaries and benefits of barangay health workers who tirelessly sacrificed for their community, especially during this pandemic,” the bill said.
The measure was co-authored by Cayetano’s wife Rep. Lani Cayetano of Taguig City and Reps. Raneo Abu of Batangas, Dan Fernandez of Laguna, Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado of Bulacan, Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur and Michael Defensor of Anakalusugan party-list.
“As frontliners of our primary healthcare system, our barangay health workers must be given sufficient incentives, benefits, and most of all, just compensation for all the hard work they have done for us,” the bill’s explanatory note read.
