Group laments 'non-inclusion' of benefits for nurses, health workers in proposed Bayanihan 3

The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) on Monday expressed dismay over the supposed non-inclusion of the benefits of health workers and nurses in the proposed Bayanihan 3. 

In a press statement, the group pointed out that the Bayanihan 3 would truly respond to the increasing health needs of the people if there will be budget allocation for the welfare of nurses and other medical frontliners. 

"What nurses and other healthcare workers need are more than the lip service and adulation. Nurses feel deep frustration and even anger with the seemingly endless struggle of this fight against pandemic," the FNU said. 

"The health workers like other basic sectors are the most hit by the anxiety created by these uncertainties. Most of all, the work conditions in terms of work load and work hours have gone worst," it added. 

The group lamented the allocation for the pension and gratuity fund of military and uniformed personnel, which amounts to P54.6 billion.

FNU stressed the urgent need to fund the salaries of additional health personnel to respond to the problem of extreme understaffing through mass hiring with regular plantilla positions of nurses and other healthcare workers. 

It noted that the promised COVID-19 benefits under Bayanihan 2, which has since expired, "have not reached many deserving health personnel who have sacrificed and took the risks in serving our people to fight this pandemic."

Approved on third and final reading last June, Bayanihan 3 seeks to provide P401 billion worth of interventions to help Filipinos recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The said measure aims to extend financial assistance worth P2,000 to all Filipinos, regardless of their status in life, in two tranches.

When it comes to additional medical response, a total of P9 billion was also appropriated for the targeted indigent beneficiaries, another P500 million for the free swab tests of overseas Filipino workers and seafarers, and P3 billion as financial assistance to local government units for their anti-COVID-19 efforts.

Section 22 of the bill specifically mentioned the special risk allowance for medical frontliners. 

It noted that "the COVID-19 special risk allowance being provided by the national government pursuant to Section 4 (H) of the Republic Act 11494 shall continue and shall be available to all public and private health workers working on a permanent or temporary basis, and catering to or in contact with COVID-19 patients, either directly or indirectly for every month that they are serving, including the period they are unable to serve due to COVID-19 hospitalization, during the state of national emergency as declared by the President."

The special risk allowance should also be in addition to the hazard pay and should be exempt from income tax, the bill stated. 

The Palace had said there is no need to pass the Bayanihan 3 since there are still funds left from the 2021 budget, however, the lower chamber vowed to still push the said measure. —Anna Felicia Bajo/KG, GMA News