Duque asks Duterte for AO to cover back allowances of health care workers

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Wednesday sought President Rodrigo Duterte's approval of an administrative order to provide the long-overdue allowances of some 423,000 healthcare frontliners.

In the weekly Talk to the People, Duque reported to the chief executive the proposal to provide meals, accommodation and transportation (MAT) allowance under Proclamation No. 18 for health workers who did not receive these benefits.

He further said 423,000 health workers did not receive these allowance from Sept. 15, 2020 to December 19, 2020.

Duque said that they have funds for MAT from the Department of Health's savings worth P1.23 billion and P1.1 billion contingency funds from the Office of the President.

"Ito ay sapat sa kinakailangang pondo, aabot sa P2.51 billion kung saan makakatanggap ng P2,000 ang bawat isang health care worker kada buwan," said Duque.

However, since Bayanihan 2 already expired last June 2021, Duque said they will need authority from Duterte to use these funds.

"Ngunit dahil lumipas ang effectivity ng Bayanihan 2 kailangan ng awtoridad upang gamitin ang pondo para sa pamamahagi ng MAT," said Duque.

Further, Duque said they already transmitted a copy of the Administrative Order to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea that covers these assistance for health workers who did not receive the MAT benefits.

Protest

The unreleased benefits have been the subject of protests of health workers from various hospitals over the past few months.

They said they have been risking their health on the frontlines to care for the sick, but are being deprived of some allowances due them such as the MAT, special risk allowance and active hazard duty pay.

Last month, Duterte appealed to the medical frontliners to be more understanding over the delayed release of their benefits, saying government has to deal with equally-pressing matters as part of its COVID-19 response.

“Give us time to adjust to the finances because ang fluctuation of events hindi natin malaman kagaya nito bigla na lang. Sino ba nag-akala na mayroong pandemiya? We have to spend in a short notice, we had to collate whatever was left or whatever was available for Bayanihan 1 and 2,” Dutere had said.—LDF, GMA News