Go lauds HCW perks approval

Senator Christopher “Bong” Go on Thursday lauded President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval of the provision of meals, accommodation and transportation (MAT) benefits for qualified healthcare workers (HCW) in the form of cash equivalents.

The President, he said, has approved the release of such benefits in the form of cash equivalents to 423,314 HCW nationwide. The said benefit can now be released in cash equivalents of around P3,500 per month.

As Senator and chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, Go earlier urged the executive to provide immediate applicable benefits to health workers in the most convenient and efficient way possible.

The Department of Health was instrumental in requesting the Office of the President for the monetization of MAT benefits, heeding the clamor of the healthcare workers. Go supported and pushed for the proposal.

“We should fight for the frontliners in any way we can. As chair of the Senate Committee on Health, I will fight for whatever is due them,” go pledged.

To ensure that all HCW are properly compensated, Senator Go has been pushing for the immediate passage of Senate Bill 2421, which he authored and co-sponsored, to provide a fixed monthly allowance for HCW during the ongoing state of emergency due to the pandemic.

The measure takes into consideration an earlier bill that Go filed and provides a Covid-19 Risk Allowance in lieu of the special risk allowance or SRA and other financial compensation granted under the Bayanihan 2.

In 2019, the lawmaker was instrumental in the enactment of Republic Act 11466 or the “Salary Standardization Law 5”. The measure gives all civilian government employees, including nurses, increased salaries broken down in tranches.

In the same year, he also ensured that enough funding was allotted for the implementation of the 2019 Supreme Court decision that upheld Section 32 of the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002, which sets the minimum salary grade of the Nurse I position at SG-15.