• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Benitez said he will look into complaints that not all supposed beneficiaries of the Health Emergency Allowance (HEA) have been included in the list of recipients, or received the correct benefits due them.
“I’ll take a look at it,” Benitez said Oct. 14 when told of the complaints of several employees of the City Health Office (CHO) that many of them were not listed, or were wrongly categorized.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod last week decided to endorse to the City Mayor’s Office the letter-complaint of more than 60 CHO personnel, who asked for a review of the list of those eligible to receive the HEA under Republic Act 11712, or the Public Health Emergency Benefits and Allowances for Healthcare Workers Act.
The law grants mandatory benefits and allowances to healthcare and non-health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health emergencies, depending on their risk exposure categorization, or at P3,000 for low risk, P6,000 for medium risk, and P9,000 for high risk.
In their letter-petition, the CHO personnel said there is need to ensure “that all health workers receive the benefits they rightly deserve, according to their risk exposure during the pandemic.”
They said they were “dismayed to discover that many of us – doctors, nurses, and midwives, who had daily, direct contact with confirmed and suspected COVID patients – were inaccurately categorized (with) ‘low’ or ‘medium risk exposure’.”
“In contrast, some colleagues, who were relieved from duty during the pandemic were classified with “high risk exposure,” they said. “We find the preparation of this master list to be highly unfair, irregular, and seemingly conducted in bad faith. We respectfully seek your intervention to review and correct this list, ensuring that all health workers receive the benefits they rightly deserve, based on their risk exposure.”
In July, some 50 job order employees assigned at the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office/911 Bacolod City Emergency also asked the city government for HEA higher than P3,000.
In their letter-appeal also endorsed by the SP to the City Mayor’s Office, the JOs said they are considered frontliners as they were the first ones tapped to assess COVID and non-COVID patients before transport to health facilities and hospitals, at the height of the health pandemic.
Around P83 million has been earmarked for the payment of HEA arrears of healthcare and nonhealthcare workers in Bacolod, and a memorandum of agreement was signed last month between the city and the Department of Health in Western Visayas on fund transfer.
Last year, P37 million was allocated as HEA for eligible Bacolod health employees. | CGC
