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In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) committed to investigating new funding options for the payment of benefits and allowances to medical personnel working on the coronavirus disease response (Covid-19).

Amenah Pangandaman, the budget secretary, recognized that, given the government’s present “limited budget,” it would be challenging to approve future requests from the Department of Health (DOH) for more funding for emergency allowances for healthcare workers (HCWs) and non-HCWs.

When questioned if the government has enough money to support the DOH’s potential demands to release an additional budget for medical front-line workers’ benefits, Pangandaman responded, “We will endeavor to distribute funding.”

“We are trying, but our balance is parang medyo negative (we have a negative balance). We’ll make an effort to obtain from our unplanned appropriations. If there are extra revenues po from the national government, I believe I will need to verify with the DOF (Department of Finance) and our Treasury, “Added she.

To distribute One Covid-19 Allowance (OCA) or Health Emergency Allowance (HEA) claims to more than 1.6 million qualified users from public and private health facilities, the DBM on Wednesday approved the release of around PHP11.5 billion.

The DBM also approved the DOH’s request to release PHP1.04 billion on Monday. This money will be used to distribute the special risk allowances (SRA) for 55,211 public and private health employees.

The DOH still requires over PHP64 billion in retroactive pay for medical professionals from June to December 2021.

Pangandaman claimed that the DBM has not yet received the DOH’s request to release the PHP64 billion budget.

“The only requests we have had from the Department of Health are those we have already released. The Department of Health has not yet submitted the requested amount of PHP64 billion, despite its assertions to the contrary, “She spoke.

However, she assured that in addition to the PHP19 billion allocated for health workers’ allowances in 2023, PHP38.9 billion in unprogrammed appropriations might be used to supplement money for emergency allowances.

“What we have for 2023 falls under unprogrammed appropriations. We also allocated less than PHP38.9 billion per year for this. It falls under unplanned funding, “added Pangandaman.

The SRA is replaced by the One Covid-19 Allowance, also known as the Health Emergency Allowance, by Republic Act (RA) 11712, also known as the Public Health Emergency Benefits and Allowances for Health Care Workers Act.

According to RA 11712, health professionals sent to locations with a high risk of exposure to Covid-19 would earn a monthly reward of PHP9,000, while those placed in areas with a moderate or low risk will receive PHP6,000 and PHP3,000, respectively.

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