Manila killing medical staff softly: FNU
MANILA: The head of one of the country’s biggest nurses group on Tuesday used a song to denounce the government for “killing sotly” medical frontliners in the campaign against the coronavirus ( COVID-19) pandemic especially for the long delay in the release of their hazard pay and special risk allowance.
“I think what’s happening now is, ‘killing me sotly’,” said Maristela Abenojar, the president of the Filipino Nurses United (FNU), referring to the song popularised by US singer Roberta Flack in the 1970s as she explained: “We’re slowly being killed due to inadequate protection against COVID-19. We are also being killed by hunger.”
“We urge the government this Christmas to be compassionate with our nurses and health workers. We need you to enforce actions because that’s the people’s taxes. So we hope you do what you need to do,” Abenojar said in a mix of Filipino and English.
Abenojar was reacting to the threat of Harry Roque,thepresidentialspokesman,thatdepartment of Health officials (DOH) would be suspended by the office of the Ombudsman for the long delay in the release of the hazard pay and special risk allowance for nurses and other medical frontliners to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Roque told a media briefing that Malacanang Palace has been receiving increasing complaints for the failure of DOH officials to release such payments despite an order from President Rodrigo Duterte.
Reports are that about 30,000 nurses and other healthcare workers failed to receive such allowances, prompting Roque to warn DOH officials: “We will remind again DOH officials of increasing reports over their failure to get their hazard pay. The office of the Ombudsman might suspend officials again.”
Earlier, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello disclosed that President Duterte had lited government ban imposed on the deployment of medical frontliners like nurses to help in their campaign against the pandemic.
Bello said the liting initially put a cap on the hiring of nurses at 5,000 annually to help ensure that the Philippines has enough of them and other health professionals to contain the spread of the virus.
But FNU’S Abenojar and other outspoken healthcare leaders said the liting should not limit the number of nurses allowed to leave for abroad, pointing out they under the present dispensation, they are abused, overworked, underpaid and underprotected.