Rep. Aris bill pushes for incentives for frontliners
By JUNE S. BLANCO
THE Philippines graduates thousands of nurses every year – but most of them do not work in Philippine hospitals.
They may be nurses abroad, their families in tow, or they land in non-nursing related jobs like call center agents, run businesses, join the military or police force and allied branches jail management and firefighting, or even become politicians.
Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado of Bohol’s 2nd District, who has two nurse-siblings abroad, traces these “square pegs in round holes” situation to the relatively low entry-level salaries of nurses here.
His observation proved true when the nurses of a national health institution in Manila last week staged a “shoe protest,” saying they were “overworked and underpaid” as the corona virus disease (CoViD-19) cases in that – and other hospitals – have filled available beds allocated for the pandemic admissions.
The protesting nurses’ and other medical staff’s chief grievance was the lack of issued personal protective equipment (PPE), especially the hazard suits, to protect against the risk of the virus as they provide care for the patients.
Aumentado said this situation prompted him to file House Bill 6796 proposing the provision of hazard pay to all frontliners in the public and private sectors and other essential workers during pandemic, epidemic outbreaks, natural or man-made disasters, and other public health emergencies.
The Committee on Health, chaired by Rep. Angelina Tan of Quezon’s 4th District, tackled the Wednesday the Aumentado Bill.
Aumentado wants the hazard pay to be not just discretionary but institutionalized.
He said the committee formed a technical working group (TWG) to determine up to what level of frontliners shall receive hazard pay.
The private sector can bankroll the hazard pay for their frontliners. The government has been providing hazard pay for health workers in that sector.
The TWG, Aumentado said, is studying if the government can still include the barangay tanod level considering that they are the men on the ground tapped to enforce lockdowns, assist in guarding quarantine facilities, locate those who escape and assist contact tracers to locate probable carriers in the barangays.
The TWG is tasked to determine the level of frontliners as this will entail a sizeable amount. He wants the hazard pay not to prejudice other national government services. He wants qualified frontliners to automatically receive the incentive once they assume responsibilities during the pandemic and other calamities.
They should not have to ask for it, he concluded.