Editorial  

Christmas lights are shining, bonuses are rolling, a better year is on its way. Hospital lights are flickering, medical supplies are lacking, workers ask “where is our hazard pay?”

 

While everyone is looking forward to the new year as if it won’t just be a prolonged and agonized version of 2020, our health workers are still crying for their P500 hazard pay and special risk allowance from March to May. 

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Around the second week of November, President Rodrigo Duterte signed an order granting the special allowances for medical health workers who are continuously serving the people despite the risk of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

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The newly approved administrative order  (AO) states that health workers who handle COVID-19 patients during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) will be given a special risk allowance (SRA) monthly amounting to P5,000. While others will receive an active hazard duty pay up to P3,000 per month. These additional payments will be given on top of their current existing benefits. 

 

However, workers from various hospitals still claim that little to nothing hazard pay has been rolled out since the order. The labor union of the University of the Philippines relation officer Joselle Ebasate pronounced that over 16,000 health workers nationwide have not received their additional payment.

 

This prompted the labor union to protest on behalf of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) workers to demand their hazard pay promised by the government. However, Ebasate also emphasized that they represent all health workers from doctors to utility personnel.

 

Placards saying “Six months have passed. Where is the COVID-19 hazard pay [and] special risk allowance?” were raised in the protest.

 

Senator Pia Cayetano, sponsor of the Department of Health’s proposed 2021 budget states that the agency lacks funds to completely provide health workers’ hazard pay. Nonetheless, Cayetano said that she “intends to request” another budget to help the country deal with the Coronavirus situation. 

 

However, Cayetano expressed that there seems to be confusion on who are the considered “eligible” frontliners that will receive the allowance.

 

"Basically, DOH is seeking clarification from various agencies — from OSG (Office of the Solicitor General), DBM (Department of Budget and Management), and DOJ (Department of Justice) specifically — to get clarification if the public health workers at the central and regional offices of the DOH are entitled to receive the special risk allowance under Bayanihan Heal as One Act," stated Cayetano on an Inquirer article.

 

Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire also assured PGH front-liners that funds were being sourced to ensure the health workers would receive their mandated benefits. 

 

Despite these assurances from the government, health workers and netizens are still enraged regarding the matter.

 

Another thing that added heat to this issue is the P7.9 billion year-end bonus for Philippine National Police personnel that was rolled out this November. Despite the lack of funds for health workers’ hazard pay, the government managed to roll out that amount of money. 

 

While health workers are demanding they be paid for their service in battling COVID, over 225,000 PNP personnel have been given a bonus for their service. This resulted in a louder outcry from health workers and enraged citizens demanding justice for how the health workers are being exploited and mistreated. 

 

In a matter of priorities and urgency, the government seems to have overlooked the most essential sector. 

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Protests for salary rates have been loud even before the pandemic; thus,  one would think that a health risk of this magnitude would make the government take heed of the country’s frontliner’s outcry. Unfortunately, it does not.

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If this continue, our overworked and exploited health workers might lose their will to serve the country, which, of course, will compromise our chances for survival against this pandemic. 

 

Hence, the government should reevaluate their priorities, and choose actions that would compensate the sacrifices given by the key players in this fight against the COVID-19. After all, it’s about time for our health workers to receive what they are due. #