Sa wakas.
These are certainly the words uttered by our health care workers upon hearing the news that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released the remaining P27.453 Billion COVID-19 health emergency allowances (HEA) claims last Friday, 05 July 2024.
The abovementioned amount covers the payment of 5,039,926 remaining validated unpaid HEAs and 4,283 COVID-19 sickness and death compensation claims of eligible health care and non-health care workers who selflessly served our country during the pandemic.
Prior to this, the DBM has already released a total of P91.283 Billion to the Department of Health for Public Health Emergency Benefits and Allowances (PHEBA), which covers all benefits for health care workers from 2021 to 2023. P73.261 Billion of the said amount was allocated for healthcare workers’ HEA.
Kudos to my former office, Team DBM!
While many hailed the release of the P27-B COVID-19 allowance, some quarters questioned its timing as it is perfectly aligned with the third State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr, who vowed last year the release of the remaining HEA.
It is exactly thirteen days before the delivery of the SONA. The Marcos Jr. Administration has that window of time to completely distribute the HEA so that the President can rightfully announce that our country’s brave and dedicated frontliners have received this benefit.
If our readers would recall, the granting of the HEA is provided under Republic Act No. 11712, otherwise known as the Public Health Emergency Benefits and Allowances for Health Care Workers Act, which was passed into law on 27 April 2022 during the period of public health emergency.
RA 11712 likewise states the monthly release of the HEA, which of course, did not happen because, as always, there was that often-repeated excuse of bureaucratic delay, which caused the unpaid HEA to balloon into billions.
Whether it is timed for the SONA, the discussion is moot and academic now. What matters is that our health care workers would finally receive this long overdue benefit.
The complete release of the HEA — and not another rhetoric from a politician or bureaucrat — is the least our government can do for their heroic sacrifices.
In the words of our Gen Z, dassarrrb!!!
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Dennis Ting is a former director at the Department of Budget and Management.
