The unfulfillment of the ‘discriminatory’ RA No. 11519 or “Bayanihan 2” — which intends to give financial aid to medical frontliners — impelled nurses and other health workers, especially in the private sector, to consider mass resignation as a form of protest against the Department of Health (DOH) and the Government.
St. Luke’s Medical Center (Taguig City) Nurses’ Union secretary Benjie Foscablo stated in an article by Daily Inquirer on Tuesday that although there was no explicit call for mass resignation among his colleagues, a myriad of nurses from private hospitals — who merely earn a minimum wage of ₱ 537 a day compared with nurses from public hospitals who are protected under the Salary Standardization Law of 2019 (RA No. 11466) — eyes quitting as an option.
“Actually, [the mass resignation] has been going on for the past two weeks already. About 40 percent of nurses (across the country) had resigned,” Foscablo stated, quoting data from the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc.
Philippine Nurses association president Melbert Reyes authenticated the above-mentioned figure. Reyes added that the recent resignations were mostly from private hospitals.
Earlier, the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) national president Robert Mendoza exposed in a press briefing on Monday that both public and private health workers are being denied lawful financial benefits from the Coronavirus-19 response funds handled by the DOH.
“We remain greatly deprived of our just and timely COVID-19 benefits like the meal, transportation, and accommodation allowance, Special Risk Allowance, and Active Hazard Duty Pay, among others. If not for the series of protest actions that we launched, our benefits will not be provided to us,” Mendoza stated.
All these expected provisions were established under RA No. 11519 approved on December 29, 2020. However, numerous medical frontliners, especially those from the private sector, have also criticized the limitation of the act.
According to Filipino Nurses United (FNU) president Maristela Abenojar, Filipino health workers are seriously contemplating mass resignation. This is particular to the unfulfilled monthly ₱ 5,000 Special Risk Allowance (SRA) to each private and public health worker since last year. Apart from that, Abenojar and private health workers resent the absence of the monthly ₱ 3,000 Active Hazard Duty Pay (AHDP) for the private sector.
Abenojar explained in an article by Philstar, “Under the Bayanihan, only those in the public sector shall receive AHDP. But when they attend to COVID-19 patients, it does not matter if you are from private or government. The risk is the same.”
UST Hospital union president Donnel John Sianson shares the same indignation. According to an article by ABS-CBN, Sianson expressed, “Hindi namin alam kung paano namin ito iraraos yung pang-araw araw na pangangailangan ng health workers. Hinarap namin ang problema sa transportasyon, hinarap namin ang problema sa akomodasyon, hinarap namin pati ang ultimong kakainin namin, hinarap namin ang problema ng hazard pay at lahat ng hinaharap namin na mga problema hanggang ngayon.”
He also revealed that other essential health workers, such as medical technicians, are not even included in the list of medical frontliners who are warranted financial aid under RA No. 11519.
St. Luke’s Medical Center Employees Association president Jao Clumia also has the same dissatisfaction and will for a mass resignation. According to him, St. Luke’s was initially able to provide the benefits. However, when the hospital allegedly became short on funds, the allocation of benefits was discontinued.
On the other hand, the DOH on Saturday appealed to the health workers. The department said that they are willing to listen to the frontliners’ vexations and demands. Nonetheless, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire warned in a public hearing that such a protest may aggravate the country’s coronavirus response.
The DOH’s reaction was made days after the Commission on Audit (COA) released its annual audit report on DOH that noted a deficiency of more than ₱ 67.3 billion worth of coronavirus response funds.
Featured image courtesy of Philippine Medical Students’ Association.
