Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte wants to know from the Department of Health (DOH) when it intends to pay about P12.57 billion-worth of health emergency allowances due healthcare workers (HCWs) and non-HCWs that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) claimed to have already released to this agency.
“We want to know from the DOH when it intends to release the balance of about P12.57 billion from the P19.96 billion in Covid-19 benefits and allowances due HCWs and non-HCWs for their medical services rendered to our people at the height of the pandemic—and which the DBM claimed to have already shelled out to the health department,” Villafuerte said.
Citing a United Private Hospital Unions of the Philippines (UPHUP) report, Villafuerte said that 20,304 HCWs have not received their mandated Covid-19 allowances and other benefits totaling P1.94 billion dating back from October 2021 onwards.
“That our medical frontliners have yet to receive the promised remuneration for their life-saving efforts at the height of Covid-19 a year or two after the WHO (World Health Organization) had already declared this global public health emergency as over, leaves a bad taste in the mouth,” said Villafuerte, the principal author in the House of Representatives of Republic Act (RA) 11469 or the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act” (Bayanihan 1) that provided for such extra benefits to HCWs and non-HCWs.
The president of the National Unity Party (NUP), Villafuerte was also lead sponsor in the House of RA 11494 or the “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act” (Bayanihan 2), which provided for financial aid or ayuda to poor Filipino families, dislocated workers and other Covid-hit sectors; as well as of RA 11712 or the “Public Health Emergency Benefits and Allowances for Healthcare Workers Act,” which assured the release of such extra pay for HCWs and non-HCWs even after the lapse of the two Bayanihan laws.
Taking the cudgels for HCWs who claimed they have yet to receive their long-due Covid-19 allowances, Villafuerte earlier bewailed the delayed release of such benefits due an estimated 20,000 healthcare workers.
Citing a United Private Hospital Unions of the Philippines (UPHUP) report, Villafuerte said that 20,304 HCWs have not received their mandated Covid-19 allowances and other benefits totaling P1.94 billion dating back from October 2021 onwards.
Reacting to this report, however, the DBM subsequently told the media there was no such delay in the release of Covid-19 benefits and allowances.
The DBM claimed to have already released P19.96 billion to the DOH to pay for the public health emergency benefits and allowances of HCWs and non-HCWs, in accordance with RA 11469 and RA 11712.
It added that of the P19.96 billion in released funds, the DOH already utilized P7.39 billion as of March 31, 2023. “Rest assured that we will continue to coordinate with the DOH to ensure that the released funds will be disbursed accordingly,” the DBM said.
Villafuerte said that with the DBM’s statement, the question that begs to be answered by the DOH is this: “So where is the balance of P12.57 billion ostensibly released by the DBM for the payment of arrears in emergency benefits and allowances due our HCWs and non-HCWs?”
According to the UPHUP, the still-unpaid benefits of 20,304 HCWs totaled P1.84 billion—comprising One Covid-19 allowance (OCA) worth P985.6 million; P737.5 million-worth of health emergency allowance (HEA); special risk allowance (SRA) totaling 16.8 million; and meals, accommodation and transportation (MAT) benefits reaching P6.7 million.
The intended HCW-beneficiaries are working in 23 private hospitals in Metro Manila and in Batangas, Cavite, Cebu and Davao del Sur, said the UPHUP in a report.
Villafuerte said one of the options reportedly being eyed by the DOH to speed up the release of the Covid-19 allowances and other benefits for HCWs was to amend its joint administrative order (AO) with the DBM by tapping authorized government depository banks to clear the way to the direct payment of the OCA and other benefits to the medical frontliners.
Citing DOH data, the UPHUP claimed that just P26.9 billion or 64% of the P41.9 billion set aside under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA) had been released thus far by the government.
The families of every HCWs and non-HCW who died of Covid-19 in the line of duty will receive P1 million, Villafuerte added.
RA 11712 entitled HCWs to a monthly HEA equivalent to P3,000 for healthworkers in low-risk areas; P6,000 for those in moderate-risk areas; and P9,000 for medical frontliners in high-risk places.
HCWs are supposed to receive the benefits for the duration of the state of the calamity attributed to the pandemic.
Then-President Duterte signed Proclamation No. 929 on March 16, 2020 declaring a six-month state of calamity across the country because of Covid-19.
The state of calamity was then extended by Mr. Duterte for a year up to Sept. 12, 2021 under Proclamation No. 1021, and again for one more year up to Sept. 12, 2022 under Proclamation No. 1218.
President Marcos extended the state of calamity till end-December 2022 when it lapsed in September last year, and announced that HCWs would continue to receive their Covid-19 allowances even if the state of calamity was no longer extended in 2023.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared last May 5 that the period of Covid-19 as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) was over, and that it was “time to transition to long-term management of the Covid-19 pandemic” amid the declining trend in coronavirus-related deaths, lower hospitalization rates and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and the high levels of population immunity to the virus.
Last year, Villafuerte reprimanded the DOH for seemingly messing up the paperwork in the grant of extra monetary benefits to HCWs, which had prevented many medical frontliners from receiving them on time in connection with their Covid-related services.
“Instead of putting off the required documentation, as claimed by the DBM leadership, for the release of additional economic benefits for our nurses and allied HCWs, our health officials should be focused on wrapping up such budgetary paperwork so our medical frontrunners can at last get such extra pay due them under the new law that was enacted earlier this year precisely in recognition of the excellent job that they have been doing to save lives since the onset of the pandemic,” Villafuerte said last year.
Villafuerte said then: “It is awful to learn that our health officials have allegedly messed up the paperwork needed for the swift release under RA 1712 of the additional allowances and other benefits of our medical frontliners who are at continuous risk of Covid-19, at this time when President Marcos had just praised our nurses as “my (his) heroes” and assured HCWs of his government’s full support for measures to equalize their pay, polish up nursing education and upgrade their career prospects.”
The NUP president explained last year that, “The new law was written by the 18th Congress exactly to prevent a repeat of the previous year’s incident in which many of our HCWs had complained about not getting on time the HEA due them for their invaluable services in caring for Covid-infected Filipinos—even at great risk to their own lives—since the pandemic broke out in early 2020.”
DOH Acting Secretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire explained last year that the payment was delayed because health officials were reportedly “still trying to negotiate” with the DBM for the release of such benefits.
In a TV interview, however, DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman claimed last year that no funding for additional HCW benefits could be given out because the DOH had yet to submit the complete documentary requirements for such release.
“The DOH already sent their request for the additional funding for health workers. However, we returned their request recently because the documents that they provided are lacking,” she said.
Pangandaman reportedly said on TV that as early as June 2022, the DBM sent a letter to the DOH requesting the health department to address the deficiencies in the documentary requirements that had been submitted by the latter for their request for fund release.
“We requested them to substantiate their request by sending us the budget breakdown, segregation, actual names of claimants, and other relevant documents for us to clearly determine the universe of eligible beneficiaries,” Pangandaman said. “As long as DOH can address the deficiencies in the documentary requirements, DBM will immediately process the request to release funds, based on the available budget.”
Villafuerte explained that with the enactment of RA 11712, our public and private HCWs and non-HCWs were supposed to be assured of receiving their extra benefits, depending on their risk exposures, but regardless of their employment status from the time of declaration of the public health emergency until it is lifted by the President.
Under RA 11712, said Villafuerte, the supplemental benefits will have retroactive application from July 1, 2021.
Villafuerte said that apart from the HEA under RA 11712, HCWs infected with mild or moderate Covid-19 infection will each receive P15,000 in compensation, while those who contracted severe or critical coronavirus disease will get P100,000 each, he said.
The families of every HCWs and non-HCW who died of Covid-19 in the line of duty will receive P1 million, he added.
Aside from HCWs, he said the extra benefits also cover frontliners who are non-healthcare workers, including those rendering medical, allied medical, administrative, technical, and support services in hospitals, health facilities, laboratories, medical or temporary treatment and monitoring facilities, and vaccination sites.
He said the expiration of the effectivity of Bayanihan 1 and Bayanihan 2 had stood in the way of the full implementation of the Covid-related benefits for our medical frontliners, hence the necessity of enacting RA 11712 to make sure HCWs and non-HCWs could get their monthly risk allowance for as long as the country remained in a state of public health emergency.
