Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte is calling on Congress to fast-track the approval of two legislative measures that aim to provide health workers with hazard pay plus substantial increases in the current rates of their overtime pay and other benefits.
Villafuerte said these proposals, which he authored, will prevent a repeat of the current unrest among medical personnel resulting from the undue delay in the release of their hazard pay and other pandemic-related benefits.
HB 7490 applies to all healthcare workers in the public and private sector.
“The growing unrest is alarming, especially given the problems plaguing the country’s healthcare infrastructure and the looming shortage of medical frontliners,” Villafuerte said. “We need to write these bills into laws soon enough so that the release of such benefits for healthcare workers will be mandatory without any need for a presidential directive.”
Villafuerte issued this statement over the weekend as President Duterte had given the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Budget and Management (DBM) a 10-day deadline to release the benefits that are due healthcare workers on the frontlines of the country’s battle against Covid-19.
The Chief Executive issued the deadline to the DOH and DBM after several health worker’s group lamented that they have yet to receive their allowances and benefits amid the pandemic.
Some groups have even threatened to stage mass protest if the benefits would still not be distributed within the 10-day deadline given by President Duterte.
Under House Bill (HB) No. 7490, Villafuerte wants the government to provide hazard pay to all healthcare frontliners, equivalent to at least 30 percent of their respective basic salaries, for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Villafuerte, who was the principal author in the House of both the Bayanihan 1 and Bayanihan 2 laws, made sure that the proposed hazard pay will also be given to workers of third-party service contractors like security guards and janitors who are assigned to medical facilities treating coronavirus-infected patients.
HB 7490 applies to all healthcare workers in the public and private sector.
His other measure, HB 9670, seeks to amend the existing Magna Carta of Public Health Workers by increasing the rates for their overtime pay and other incentives and benefits.
HB 9670 aims to increase the night shift differential pay of public health workers from 10% to 20% of the regular wage they receive.
The bill also seeks to raise the additional amount they receive for each hour of work performed between 6 PM and 6AM the following day from 10% to 20% of such overtime rate.
It also provides for a P300 daily subsistence allowance and P10,000 monthly hazard allowance for each public health worker.
Villafuerte said frontline health workers have long been complaining about the delay in the release of their pandemic benefits under the Bayanihan 2 law and the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers.
These amounts may be increased as may be determined in the future by the Secretary of Health, the bill states.
The laundry allowance of public health workers required to wear uniforms will also be increased from P125 to P500 per month or higher as may be determined in the future by the health secretary, HB 9670 states.
Villafuerte said frontline health workers have long been complaining about the delay in the release of their pandemic benefits under the Bayanihan 2 law and the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers.
Earlier, Villafuerte said the House of Representatives should slash the DOH budget in the proposed 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA) should its top officials led by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III “fall flat” in justifying to the Congress their “criminal negligence” in failing to use all of last year’s state funds plus P3.4 billion in foreign aid intended for the country’s Covid-19 response.
He said his proposed cut in the DOH’s budget for 2020 should be realigned and given to other agencies that need more funds to fight the coronavirus and assist families, businesses and other sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.
Villafuerte said the House should demand that DOH officials make a full disclosure and explain how they spent their Covid-19 response funds since 2020, following the release of a Commission on Audit (COA) report that flagged discrepancies in this agency’s use of its P67.23-billion budget last year intended for the country’s fight against the lingering pandemic.
