CAGAYAN de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez today said Health workers in Cagayan de Oro City will now be given a special risk allowance (SRA) following Department of Health committed to request the Department of Budget and Management’s release of funds for the long-awaited benefits.
“The DOH now to give Special Risk Allowance to Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) and Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) in CDO,” said Rodriguez, including meals accommodation and transportation allowance (MAT).
Deputy Speaker Rodriguez on Thursday interpellated DOH Sec. Francisco Duque III during the hearing of the House Committee on Public Accounts on the P67B deficiencies in DOH found by COA.
Rodriguez emphasized that the Bayanihan 2 (Sec 10(a)(5), RA 11495) clearly requires DOH to release the meals, accommodation and transportation alowances to health care workers (HCWs) who are in contact with or directly catering to Covid-19 patients.
Rodriguez said RA 11519 extended the effectivity of Bayanihan 2 and all its benefits including Special Risk Allowance (SRA) and MAT up to June 30, 2021.
“Therefore the HCWs in public and private hospitals and BHWs and BNS in the barangays are all entitled to receive the MAT allowances for January 2021 to June 30, 2021,” according to Rodriguez.
The meal allowance is P540 a day, while the transportation allowance is P50 a day, and the accommodation allowance is what is actually paid by the HCWs to their boarding houses, he said.
Duque committed to request DBM to download more funds to DOH to pay the MAT of HCWs in the country.
During the hearing, Rodriguez also urged DOH to include the BHWs and Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) embedded in the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTs) as recipients of Special Risk Allowance (SRA) since they are in charge of extracting Covid-19 patients from their to hospitals and isolation units.
They are also conducts medical visits on those who stayed at home because the hospitals and isolations units are full, added Rodriguez.
Duque committed to pay the SRA of BHWs and BNS in CDO coming from the P311M for SRA just released the other day.
Meanwhile, DOH regional director Boy Llacuna also promised to collate the list of BHWs and BNS in CDO and submit the list today (Friday) to Sec Duque so that they will be paid their SRA at P5k a month for the period January,2021 to June 30, 2021 or a total of P30,000 for 6 months.
It can be recalled that last week, Rodriguez also pushed for the release of the SRA for the period January to June 30, 2021 of qualified HCWs both in public and private hospitals in Cagayan de Oro.
Since last week, DOH-10 has downloaded to public and private hospitals more than P33 Million for the payment of the SRA benefit.
In his pre-recorded address on August 20, President Rodrigo Duterte gave 10 days to DOH and DBM to pay all the unpaid benefits of HCWs in the country, affirming the earlier appeal of Rodriguez to release all the health workers’ benefits provided for by law. (PR)
