FNU renews calls vs. DOH, Duque over unreleased benefits issue

The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) on Wednesday reiterated its calls to hold the Department of Health (DOH) accountable and for Secretary Francisco Duque III to resign over the alleged failure of the agency to release benefits due to health workers.

In a statement, the FNU said their group is in "extreme frustration" after the DOH allegedly failed once more to implement the benefits to augment the financial burden of nurses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the 10-day ultimatum.

"It is outrageous that the DOH focused only on one benefit — special risk allowance (SRA) — when there are other delayed benefits," the group said

It identified the other benefits and compensations as:

• active hazard duty pay (AHDP),
• life insurance, meals, and accommodation and transportation (MAT) allowance
• compensation for health workers who had mild, moderate, severe or critical COVID, and
• compensation for families of health workers who died of COVID

The nurses' group pointed out the Commission on Audit (COA) findings that P11.89 billion from the 2020 funds of the DOH remained unobligated, with the agency supposedly allocating billions of pesos to "questionable deals" and purchases.

The group added that the P311 million worth of SRAs allegedly released by the DOH targeted only 20,000 more health workers, which is far behind the 500,000 targeted health workers.

The FNU said the DOH’s claim of releasing SRAs to 360,000 health workers for September 15 to December 19, 2020, and another 379,000 health workers for December 20, 2020 to June 30, 2021, is in need of a transparent list.

FNU issued the statement as health workers trooped to the DOH office in Manila on Wednesday morning to demand the release of their benefits.

The DOH has said it has sought additional funds from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to provide the COVID-19 special risk allowance (SRA) to over 17,000 more health workers.

President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly defended Duque amid calls for his resignation, some of them coming from senators. According to the President, Duque has tendered his resignation twice but he rejected them.

At a House budget briefing on Wednesday, Duque said healthcare workers with “indirect” exposure to COVID-19 cases could only qualify for special risk allowances (SRA) through a law.

Duque in August said the DOH will look into savings that it could realign for risk allowances, given that billions of the department’s budget for the same provision were unobligated.  —Jamil Santos/KBK, GMA News