Executive chided for not putting risk allowance, booster shots first in proposed budget

MANILA, Philippines — Two senators on Thursday criticized the Duterte government for leaving health workers’ special risk allowance unfunded and funds for COVID-19 booster shots unallocated in the proposed national budget for 2022.

The Department of Health told lawmakers last week that the Department of Budget and Management slashed its proposed budget by 73%, leaving out funds for hazard pay, meals, accommodation and transportation allowances, and life insurance for healthcare workers. 

Meanwhile, the P45 billion for booster shots are unprogrammed in the proposed budget, which means it will only be funded if there are sources of revenue for it. Budget Undersecretary Tina Marie Canda said this was because officials are waiting for local regulators to greenlight the extra shots. 

READ: What we know so far about booster COVID-19 shots

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon noting that the government's controversial National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict is set to receive an increased P28-billion budget under the proposal with no strings attached while the health budget is cut amid a pandemic. 

The NTF-ELCAC drew the Senate's ire earlier this year when one of its spokespersons red-tagged community pantry organizers and later called senators "stupid" for threatening to defund the task force.  

"Billions are allocated for intelligence and confidential funds but we cannot even bother to take care of the health workers by funding their Special Risk Allowance," Drilon said.

"There is no line item in the budget for hazard pay. Not a single peso is allocated for our medical front liners’ meals, accommodation, and transportation allowance."

He went on to score Malacañang's proposed budget as the "most detached from reality" he has seen in the last 23 years, prioritizing funding for the anti-insurgency while COVID-19 cases continue to rise. 

Palace told to correct proposed budget 

Sen. Joel Villanueva in a separate statement said the government must send Congress a "budget errata" or a document transmitting corrections to the proposed budget if it really intends to extend SRA and Active Duty Hazard Pay for health workers until next year. 

If it fails to send such a document, he added, it would be "clear as day that the executive branch ïs pulling the plug" on giving medical frontliners extra pay for risky duty. 

While Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told members of the House of Representatives that DOH would need P50.4 billion to fund the SRA, AHDP and other pandemic duty allowances for the entire 2022, Villanueva said the amount appears to be at the "high end of the estimate."

He said the actual amount needed could be as low as P23 billion for the year or less than half than the amount proposed by the health secretary. 

If the executive branch fails to send a budget errata, Villanueva added, the Senate should "unilaterally remedy" the matter as the 2022 budget is only "one of three tracks" through which the SRA and AHDP can be funded. 

He said the two items could be funded through a third stimulus package or a separate law entirely. 

Malacañang has been cool to Bayanihan 3 proposals and it is unclear if President Rodrigo Duterte would be open to signing a separate law granting health workers SRA and ADHP. 

"One thing that should be impressed upon them is that the virus will still be with us next year," Villanueva said. "If that is a certainty, then so must the allowances of brave frontliners who will be fighting it." — Bella Perez-Rubio