343 cases added; budget for volunteers vowed

THE DEPARTMENT of Health (DoH) reported 343 coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) infections on Sunday — a record daily increase — bringing the total to 1,418.

Three more patients — all Filipinos aged 70, 71 and 78 — died, raising the death toll to 71, DoH said in an e-mailed bulletin. The three had underlying conditions such as asthma, hypertension, heart and kidney diseases and diabetes.

Seven more patients aged 13 to 44 have recovered from the virus, bringing the total of those who have gotten well to 42, it said.

Meanwhile, congressmen are willing to allot a budget for wages of volunteer health workers equivalent to what their newly hired counterparts in the government receive, Party-list Rep. Eric G. Yap said on Sunday, as the country fights the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are willing to give them that,” Mr. Yap, who heads the House committee on appropriations, told the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) in Filipino on Sunday.

He said Congress has empowered President Rodrigo R. Duterte to realign as much as P275 billion of the national budget so the government could better fight the pandemic.

“We can try to find more funds if needed,” Mr. Yap said. “That is what we want to suggest to the Executive so our frontliners will be paid well.”

The congressman said he would discuss with Speaker Alan Peter S. Cayetano how to increase the budget for volunteer health workers. Lawmakers would also meet with budget officials to discuss the appropriations, he added.

The Department of Health (DoH) earlier apologized for offering P500 in daily pay to volunteer doctors and nurses during their “month-long contribution,” a rate criticized by some sectors.

Volunteer doctors should be hired and paid at least P50,000 a month, which is the entry-level salary grade for governmenthired physicians, while nurses should receive at least P22,000, according to Dr. Geneve Reyes, secretary-general of Health Action for Human Rights.

The government should also shoulder their pay during the 14day quarantine after their tour of duty, she told ANC yesterday.

“They sacrifice their live for us,” Mr. Yap said, adding that it’s only fitting that they get paid enough.

As of Sunday, almost 700 “health care warriors” have signed up to be assigned at three government hospitals that will exclusively treat COVID-19 patients, DoH said in a statement, adding that the initial rate it had offered was “provisional.”

Mr. Yap also said minimum wage workers would receive a total subsidy of P8,000 per family.

Local government units will identify the families living on minimum wage while the Department of Social Welfare and Development will distribute the funds, he said.

Meanwhile, Albay Rep. Jose Maria Clemente S. Salceda urged the government to broaden the coverage of the emergency subsidy program.

Mr. Salceda, who heads the House ways and means committee, said village officials including secretaries, treasurers and village police officers should also become eligible for frontliner benefits.

“There are serious issues of duplication, because we are using multiple government lists with different members of the same family in each,” the congressman said in a letter to President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

“Of course, when one family gets more than what it has to, another family is getting less or none. It could potentially deprive the underserved, unlisted informal sector,” Mr. Salceda said. “And in the bigger picture, that compromises our quarantine efforts because they will look for livelihood,” Mr. Salceda added. —