A P10,000 special risk allowance for health workers in private companies was approved by the bicameral conference committee on the proposed Bayanihan to Recover As One Act, House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said Thursday.
According to Cayetano, the proposal is included in the House version of Bayanihan 2. The second Bayanihan law would provide a total of P10.5 billion for different compensation for medical frontliners, including the P10,000 special risk allowance for public and private health workers.
The Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act only provides the said allowance to public healthcare workers.
Cayetano, however, said that the efforts of all public and private healthcare workers should be equally acknowledged.
“In any crisis, the government is forced to prioritize with limited resources; you will have to ask the private sectors too, as much as they can, manage it on their own so the most disadvantaged ones can be accommodated. But at this point in this pandemic, there is hardly that distinction,” Cayetano said in a statement.
“No amount of money could repay the blood, sweat, and tears shed by our health workers, but taking care of those extra things for them can go a long way. And it will allow them to focus more on taking care of our kababayans,” the House Speaker added.
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Bicam approves P10K risk allowance for private health workers
Aside from the special risk allowance, the Bayanihan 2 would also cover for free life insurance, accommodation, transportation, and meals for all public and private medical frontliners for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bicameral committee also adopted the provision granting P100,000 in compensation for healthcare workers in the public and private sector who acquired severe COVID-19 infection while on duty from February 1, 2020, onwards.
If approved, Bayanihan 2 would provide P162 billion funding for COVID-19 response and resilient recovery programs.
“Basically, we are targeting two things: first, to come up with short-term solutions so we can effectively manage the pandemic, and second, to design measures in response to the crisis in a way that will bring long-term positive effects to our economy moving forward,” Cayetano said.