By Pearl Gumapos
President Duterte has approved the continued monthly PHP5,000 worth of risk allowance for health workers focused on COVID-19 response.
The President on June 1 signed Administrative Order (AO) 42 which provides PHP5000 in risk allowance to concerned private and public health workers directly catering to or in contact with COVID-19 patients.
Administrative Order 42 will be extending the grant of special risk allowance (SRA) of P5,000 until June 30, 2021.
The grant of the SRA is in recognition of the heroic and invaluable contributions of the health workers throughout the country who bravely and unselfishly risked their lives and health by being at the forefront of national efforts to respond to the pandemic, the law said.
The COVID-19 SRA shall be prorated based on the number of days that the frontline worker physically reported for work in a month, as certified by the head of the hospital, laboratory, or medical and quarantine facility, reckoned from September 15 2020 to June 30, 2021.
According to the statute, all claims for the payment of SRA to the workers shall be validated by the Department of Health (DOH).
The law says that the additional funding necessary for the continued grant of the SRA until June 30, 2021 shall be charged against any appropriate funding source as authorized under Republic Act (RA) 11494.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will release the funds for the payment of the SRA, consistent with the existing budgeting, accounting, and auditing laws, rules, and regulations. –rir
