P5-K SRA for healthcare workers ‘very fair’: ARTA chief

MANILA – Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) Director General Jeremiah Belgica believes that there should be no discrimination in the disbursement of the Special Risk Allowance (SRA) for healthcare workers.

Belgica said all healthcare workers, whether directly attending to coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients or not, should receive an equal amount of SRA.

“We believe that the PHP5,000 SRA across the board for all would be very fair,” he said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel on Friday.

He added that giving an equal amount to all health workers would cut the bottlenecks in the SRA disbursement.

“With the global pandemic, it is really hard to distinguish who is at risk and who is not at risk,” Belgica said.

He added that all health workers are at risk of getting infected with coronavirus once they enter their facilities.

“(The) sources of funding could always be worked out,” Belgica said.

The ARTA chief said an additional 17,000 healthcare workers will receive their PHP5,000 SRA this week.

Last week, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the additional PHP888.12 million released by the Department of Budget and Management for the SRA of healthcare workers will cover more than 97,000 front-liners.