P11.5b allotted for allowance claims of 1.6m frontliners, health staff

THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved Wednesday the release of P11.5 billion to the Department of Health (DOH) to cover the One COVID-19 Allowance/ Health Emergency Allowance (OCA/ HEA) claims of over 1.6 million eligible public and private health care and non-healthcare workers.

In a statement, Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) covers unfunded OCA/ HEA claims of health care and nonhealth care workers from January to June this year.

“Our health care workers deserve all the support and assistance from their government. They’ve been risking their lives to save and protect our people amidst this still prevailing pandemic. This is the least we can do for them,” she said.

This developed as the seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate in the National Capital Region (NCR) continued to rise to 19 percent on Wednesday, the OCTA Research Group monitoring the pandemic said.

OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David reported that NCR’s positivity rate increased from 18.7 percent on September 26 and is just a bit lower than the 19.1 percent recorded on October 2.

The positivity rate refers to the percentage of people who were found positive for COVID-19 among the total number of individuals tested.

Meanwhile, a party-list lawmaker on Wednesday welcomed the DBM’s previous announcement of releasing P1.04 billion to the DoH to cover allowances for government and private-sector health workers who worked during the pandemic.

“With gratitude, we welcome the decision of the Department of Budget and Management in allotting additional funds for our frontliners,” said Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Ray Florence Reyes.

“We hope that more unused available funds are found and sourced to fill in the P73-billion total of overdue allowances our workers deserve to receive,” he added.

The DBM’s latest release of funds covers the unfunded portion of some 2,613,331 approved OCA/HEA claims by the DOH as of September 5, 2022, with a total funding requirement of P18.7 billion.

Of the amount, P7.92 billion was released last February 14, 2022, to cover the payment of 995,671 OCA/HEA claims.