Senators to DOH: Where’s IRR for Covid frontliners’ death benefits?

SENATORS slammed the Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday for allegedly bungling Bayanihan Law benefits intended for health workers who either perished, or fell sick, while treating victims of the deadly Covid-19 virus.

Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, Finance Committee chairman vented his frustration upon learning that the DOH was taking time to issue the implementing rules and regulations (IRR), delaying the benefits intended for frontline health workers battling the contagion.

Angara said he was “very disappointed to hear the response from the DOH,” recalling that “the Senate labored and burned the midnight oil to pass Bayanihan One Law.”

“It is quite upsetting to find out that so many months have gone without the DOH crafting the IRR,” the senator rued, noting that “so many health workers have suffered, whether they have died or have been severely afflicted with Covid virus.”

Admitting this was “very upsetting,” Angara vented his frustration over the DOH report on the delayed availment of the said compensation which the senator found to be “criminal” on finding what, he said, “appears to be neglect” on the part of the agency to issue the IRR, delaying the release of benefits intended for anti-covid-19 frontliners.

“It’s really criminal, this neglect to pass this [IRR]; to delay these types of benefit,” he said. “We keep praising them as our heroes but it’s mere lip service if we don’t give them anything material.”

Sen. Richard J. Gordon, for his part griped that 32 health workers were reported to have died in the line of duty treating but have yet to claim compensation, owing to the delayed issuance of the said IRR.

Gordon noted that under Section 4(f ) of R A 11469, or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, public and private health workers who die while fighting the Covid-19 pandemic will be provided with compensation amounting to P1 million each, while health workers who contract severe Covid-19 infection while in the line of duty will be compensated with P100,000 each.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the government owes the families of the 32 health workers’ families P32 million, stressing that absence of an IRR “should not be an excuse not to comply with the law.”