đź“·Alliance of Health Workers – AHW National | FB
Members of the Alliance of Health Workers together with other health organizations hold a press conference today to demand accountability from the Marcos government for its failure to curb the rising prices of food and other basic commodities, while the wages of health workers, private sector employees, and government workers remain below minimum living wage amidst the rising cost of living.
“It’s almost three years now of President Marcos administration, yet there has been no significant change in our dismal situation as health workers. Our conditions have worsened, and more are leaving the country due to low wages, severe understaffing, lack of adequate benefits, and job insecurity,” said Edwin Pacheco, AHW National Officer.
“We asked for a livable wage, but President BBM’s response was EO64, which provides a meager and inhumane salary increase. In EO64, a Salary Grade 1 government employee will only receive an increase of P530/month (from P13,000.00 to P13,530.00). If we divide it by 22 working days, the salary increase is only P24.00/day. Where will that P24.00 take us? Prices of goods and transportation are already high. We have no choice but to borrow money from loan sharks just to get by with our daily expenses. What we are asking for is a P33,000 entry salary for all health workers in both public and private sectors.” Pacheco added.
Health workers express their anger because, until now, their Performance-Based Bonus has not been provided to public health workers. Furthermore, although the pandemic is over, the health emergency allowances for private and LGU health workers have still not been fully released.
“Ang ganitong klaseng sistema ay hindi nakaka-engganyo sa mga health workers na manatili sa ating bansa at magtrabaho sa mga pampublikong ospital. Why do we have to continually assert and demand our hard-earned benefits? We, as health workers, have already fulfilled our duty in providing health services. We worked hard for it. Therefore, we demand the release of our Performance-Based Bonus for the years 2021 to 2023, as well as the COVID-19 allowances for our fellow health workers,” stated John Paul Gubaton, President of the Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center Employees Union-Alliance of Health Workers.
“Moreover, we also demand the regularization of contractual health workers and mass hiring to address the severe understaffing in public hospitals. In NKTI and PHC, there are a total of 1,753 contract of service workers, including in-house, outsourced, and regular contractuals. The titles may differ, but the scheme is the same,” expressed Jocelyn Guinto, president, of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute Employees Association-Alliance of Health Workers.
While health workers and the Filipino people are suffering from the economic and health crisis, the constant political clashes between former allies Marcos and Duterte continue, and rampant corruption in the bureaucracy persists, as reflected in the increased pork barrel allocation in the 2025 national budget, while the budget for social services like health has been slashed.
“We, health workers, stand with the Filipino people in demanding that Vice President Sara Duterte be held accountable for the misuse of P125M in confidential funds, and that the DOH and the Marcos administration be held accountable for their incompetence, inability, and failure to address the health workers’ and the people’s demand for a better healthcare system.”
Health workers also held a ‘Black Hearts Day Lunch Break Protest’ in front of the Department of Health today to raise the same issues. #
