{"id":257157,"date":"2020-06-05T01:07:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T05:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=257157"},"modified":"2020-06-05T01:07:22","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T05:07:22","slug":"prrd-wants-new-team-to-release-health-workers-compensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/06\/05\/prrd-wants-new-team-to-release-health-workers-compensation\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD wants new team to release health workers’ compensation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on April 20, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has directed Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to form a new team that will oversee the distribution of compensation to health workers with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).<\/p>\n

Duterte gave the fresh order during his meeting with his Cabinet in Davao City on Thursday night after being piqued by the delayed release of compensation benefits for healthcare workers who fell severely ill or died of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I am asking Secretary Duque to form a new team that would focus on the immediate delivery of the assistance that should be given to those who were\u00a0\u2018yung namatay tapos \u2018yung nagkasakit<\/em>\u00a0(died or fell ill due to Covid-19). And I expect it within 24 hours,\u201d he said in a speech aired on-state-run PTV-4.<\/p>\n

Under Republic Act (RA) 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, health workers who contracted Covid-19 will be given PHP100,000, while the families of healthcare workers who died of Covid-19 duty will receive PHP1 million.<\/p>\n

Senators, however, lamented on Tuesday that none of the health workers who acquired Covid-19 received compensation packages.<\/p>\n

Duterte said it was \u201ctotally unacceptable\u201d that the health workers infected with Covid-19 have yet to be compensated.<\/p>\n

He ordered Duque to make sure that the new team would fulfill its mandate to provide immediate assistance to the uncompensated health workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cDirectly deliver the assistance immediately. Secretary Duque, you have the full authority to assemble the team. It may not really be from your office or the department itself. You can get persons of known honesty\u00a0diyan sa opisina mo<\/em>\u00a0(in your office), even temporary, just for a new designation, just to take care of its funds which ought to be in the hands of the intended beneficiaries by this time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As of June 1, a total of 2,669 healthcare workers have acquired Covid-19, according to the data from the Department of Health (DOH).<\/p>\n

Around 1,438 of the infected health workers have already recovered, while 32 others have died due to the new coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sacrificing\u2019 erring officials<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duque, who was also present during the meeting, admitted that he was not satisfied with the performance of those who are responsible for the distribution of the compensation to the affected healthcare workers.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Yung mga tao ko, parang walang<\/em>\u00a0sense of urgency.\u00a0‘Yun po ang talagang ang sama-sama ng loob ko<\/em>\u00a0(My subordinates seemed to have no sense of urgency. I am really dissatisfied),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said the financial aid should be given in \u201cjust a matter of days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duterte cautioned that he is willing to \u201csacrifice\u201d government officials who are behind the delay in the release of cash assistance to the virus-hit health workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to move fast. And if we have to move fast, I will sacrifice you even if you are not really a laggard,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you want it done in a hurry, the power to appoint carries with it a power to dismiss And since it\u2019s an absolute thing for total loss of confidence, I\u2019m removing them because they are not functioning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Conflicting claims\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duque told Duterte that his office had already identified the families of the 32 fallen health workers.<\/p>\n

He, however, noted that there was a problem in the release of the compensation due to the \u201cconflicting claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duque, nevertheless, guaranteed that the DOH is now doing its best to compensate the sick health workers and the families of those who died.<\/p>\n

He said the Joint Administrative Order has already been issued to implement the provision on healthcare workers\u2019 this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cYung pinapatutukan ko po, \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a032 families\u00a0na kailangan po yung ayuda nila na<\/em>\u00a0PHP1 million based on your directive,\u00a0dapat iyan i-<\/em>release (I have already told them to focus on the 32 families who should receive the PHP1 million assistance, based on your directive),\u201d Duque said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has directed Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to form a new team that will oversee the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":253081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257160,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257157\/revisions\/257160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}