Quimbo questions 'discrepancies' on figures of healthcare workers who received benefits

Marikina City Representative Stella Quimbo on Tuesday questioned the supposed discrepancies in the distribution of the allowances and benefits of healthcare workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Quimbo, an economist, said that out of 526,547 names of healthcare workers submitted by DOH, only a total of 384,159 received allowance and benefits as provided by Bayanihan 2.

The allotted fund for the benefits was P13.5 billion, the lawmaker said.

"So kung 384,159 ang nakatanggap ng SRA (special risk allowances) at a maximum, which is or the period September to December of 2020, ang ibig sabihin noon only 73% of workers received allowance. So ang tanong ko, anong nangyari doon sa 27% of the workers, which is about kulang-kulang 150,000 workers na hindi nakatanggap ng kahit ano?" Quimbo asked during the briefing of the House committee on public accounts on the "deficiencies" of the DOH in managing the P67.32 billion of COVID-19 funds.

(If only 384,159 received special risk allowances at a maximum, which is or the period September to December of 2020,  that means only 73% of workers received allowance. So my question is, what happened to the 27% of the workers, which is around 150,000 workers who received nothing?)

"Malamang sa malamang ito ang dahilan ng pagbabanta ng pag-mass leave 'di ba? So ano nangyari sa 150,000 workers na hindi nakatanggap considering that maliwanag sa batas na lahat ng healthcare workers dapat makatanggap (Most likely this was the reason behind the mass leave threat of our health workers. So what happened to the 150,000 workers considering that it is clear in the law that all the healthcare workers should receive their allowances). We do not discriminate against public or private or against any kind of health workers," she added.

In response, Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega, chief of staff of the DOH Administration and Financial Management Team, explained that the figure refers to those recognized and validated healthcare workers who are directly handling COVID-19 cases.

"We have to stress here that most of the public and private workers that were estimated to have that number were validated by the HR of the institutions and the regional offices so these are the only public and private healthcare workers who are directly catering to COVID," Vega said.

Quimbo, pointed out that from the very start, the intention of DOH is to provide allowances and benefits to over 500,000 healthcare workers.

"But in the end, you only covered 384,000? At sasabihin ninyo na dahil hindi sila nakalista (And you will say this is because they were not on the list)?" Quimbo said.

Several groups of health workers from both government hospitals and the private institutions have been complaining of the non-release of their special risk allowance and the removal of their other benefits such as meal and transportation allowance even as they continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some have threatened to go on mass protest over the supposed neglect of the Philippine government’s on the plight of healthcare workers.

In response to the COA report, the DOH had clarified that the P67.32 billion funds are accounted for and said it is currently addressing the compliance issues and deficiencies.

Duque also reiterated that no budget of the agency was corrupted, noting that the funds were used to strengthen the measures of the government against COVID-19.

"Tinitiyak po ng ating kagawaran na walang bahid ng katiwalian ang pag gamit ng pondong ito," Duque said in the same congressional briefing.—AOL, GMA News