EDITORIAL — A small measure of justice

According to a report in this newspaper, the Cebu City government has finally eased the requirements for claiming the long-delayed Health Emergency Allowance (HEA) for health workers.

In case you didn’t know the HEA was something promised by the national government to health workers for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was in 2020 yet so, yes, this was promised to them that long ago but held back for years at the city level because of bureaucratic hurdles.

The same story quotes Councilor Pastor “Jun” Alcover Jr. as saying that the Office of the City Accountant will no longer demand multiple clearances such as office certification, accounting clearance, service records, and undertakings, as requirements for the claims.

Workers already verified by the Department of Health only have to present their proper identification cards at the City Treasurer’s Office once the payrolls are processed.

If there’s anything else more off-putting, it’s tons of requirements for one simple thing. We have all been there before; we have to present multiple IDs, different documents, or various permits, certifications, or clearances to get something from a government office or agency.

Not only does getting those requirements take up a lot of time, we are sure that all of those papers and documents we submitted are just going to end up as paper waste after the transaction is over.

This allowance is richly deserved by our health workers. We cannot dismiss what they went through during the pandemic. While most of us were staying safe and quarantined in our homes, they were the ones out there working long hours and always at risk of getting infected and even dying from COVID-19.

But the virus wasn’t the only danger they faced; many of them became discriminated against and even ostracized in their own neighborhoods because of how closely they worked with those with the virus, as well as the rampant misinformation and disinformation about the disease.

We can say that for them to be allowed to get that reward without having them jump through hoops is a small measure of justice.