Angara bats for uninterrupted benefits for health workers

The Senate finance committee is set to present in plenary the committee report on the bill that will ensure the benefits intended for public and private health workers under the Bayanihan 1 and 2 laws will continue to be provided even after their expiry.

Senate Bill 2371 coauthored by Senator Sonny Angara was favorably endorsed by the Department of Health, which sought for the passage of the measure in order to address any question about the legality of the continued grant of benefits to the health workers.

Angara, the finance committee chair, said the law was clear that the benefits for health workers such as the monthly Special Risk Allowance (SRA) should continue for as long as the the state of national public health emergency declared by the President is in place.

“This bill is an offshoot of the Senate’s investigation into the receipt or non-receipt of benefits by our health workers as contained in the Bayanihan laws,” he said.

“And with the view of the Executive Branch that these Bayanihan 2 health benefits have lapsed already with the expiration of the law, we were constrained to file this bill,” Angara said.

“We acknowledge the tremendous sacrifices being made by our health workers during this pandemic and the various risks they are exposed to in their line of work—both the doctors and nurses directly catering to Covid patients and those performing other tasks at the hospitals and other health facilities,” he said.

“They should continue to receive their benefits for as long as this national health emergency is in place,” Angara added.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)