THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released to the Department of Health (DOH) an additional P451.31 million to cover the payment of Special Risk Allowances (SRA) of public and private health workers, but another P1.185 billion is still pending for the approval of the Office of the President.
With the additional P451.31 million released by DBM, the total SRA releases to DOH have reached P8.23 billion for health-care workers directly catering to or in contact with Covid-19 patients from December 20, 2020 to June 30, 2021. This amount was estimated to have benefitted 499,116 health-care workers, according to a statement issued by the DBM on Wednesday.
Budget Undersecretary and Officer-In-Charge Tina Marie Canda separately told the BusinessMirror that the figure is already net the P2.73 billion lapsed/reverted allotment upon expiration of Bayanihan 2.
Eligible health workers are entitled to receive SRA not exceeding P5,000 per month. This is on top of the existing compensation as prescribed under the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers and the DOH-DBM Joint Circular No. 1, series of 2016.
The grant of Covid-19 SRA shall also be pro-rated based on the number of days that the frontline health workers physically report for work in a month.
Of the recently released additional P451.31 million for the payment of the SRA, P407.08 million was charged from the Contingent Fund while P44.23 million was charged
from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund under the FY 2021 General Appropriations Act.
If the President approves the P1.185 billion for SRA, this would benefit an additional 63,812 health workers and this would have brought the total SRA releases covering the same period to P9.37 billion.
Earlier, the Filipino Nurses United warned of a possible mass resignation if they still can’t receive their SRA from DOH.