Beleaguered Health Secretary Franscico T. Duque III, facing an inquiry by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on the 2020 report of the Commission on Audit (COA) on the budget utilization of the Department of Health (DOH), said on Friday he may have to seek “legal advice” from the Department of Justice (DOJ) if the agency would be allowed to extend Special Risk Allowance (SRA) benefit to health-care workers (HCW) not exposed to Covid-19 patients.
Duque said that he had signified to COA Chairman Michael G. Aguinaldo that he would seek the advice of Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra, stressing that COA’s liberal interpretation cannot act as a “substitute” for a legal basis.
“We agreed short of an amendment to the law, for the creation of a new law for a more liberal interpretation of the initial provision found in the Bayanihan Law 2,” Duque said, adding that a letter has already been drafted for Guevarra.
The DOJ chief legal advice, Duque said, will give them “level of confidence” that a “liberal interpretation” could serve as a justification.
Quick response funds
Meanwhile, the DOH said that the agency would tap its quick response funds to be able to augment the unpaid benefits of the remaining HCWs.
This after opposition Senator Francis Pangilinan revealed that only 5 percent of the 488,000 health workers have received their SRA out of the P311 million downloaded by the DOH to its Centers for Health Development on August 25.
Pangilinan also asked Duque for a timeline on when would the DOH be able to pay the remaining 95 percent of HCWs.
“Mga two months ‘yan. Mga two months, your Honor,” Duque replied.
Duque said that for the second batch, there are 17,670 HCWs who are set to receive their SRA ,while 80,048 are currently being validated by the DOH for the third batch before requesting budgetary allocation from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, in an online media forum, said that the DOH may still extend the deadline for the submission of the list of HCWs who may apply for the payment of their SRA.