MANILA (UCAN): “Healthcare workers are like emergency room patients left to suffer and die instead of being given first aid,” Jao Clumia, a nurse told reporters during a protest in Manila, the Philippines, on September 1. Dressed in protective gear protesters carrying placards gathered at the Department of Health [DoH] to demand withheld social security benefits and Covid-19 coronavirus risk allowances and called for the resignation of Francisco Duque, the country’s health secretary.
They accused the government of mistreating them during a pandemic that has swamped hospitals with Covid-19 sufferers and claimed the lives of at least 103 medical workers.
“It’s sad that many of us have died and many have resigned or opted to retire early, yet we are still kneeling before the DoH pleading for our benefits,” Robert Mendoza, president of the Alliance of Health Workers, said.
Medical workers say they are still waiting for the payout of benefits despite the president, Rodrigo Duterte, having ordering that health workers be paid by August 31 following threats of resignations and strike warnings [Sunday Examiner, September 5].
Mendoza also rapped Duterte for defending Duque concerning allegations of corruption in the Health Department.
“Duterte should have supported the Commission on Audit’s report about the misused and unused 67.3-billion-peso scam in the Health Department. Instead, he defended his health chief and told the rest of his cabinet not to honour reports of the constitutionally mandated commission to oversee how government funds are spent,” Mendoza added.
Duterte recently admitted that he ordered Duque to bypass a law regulating the procurement bidding process in the purchase of protective personal equipment at the start of the pandemic.
He said he did so because the pandemic necessitated a quick purchase. “This is a pandemic, so we needed to act immediately,” Duterte told reporters on August 31.
Health workers, however, unconvinced that there was no corruption in the procurement process.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
https://www.Facebook.com/CFM-Gifted-to-give-101039001847033
“The cost of our protective gear and equipment was 1,910 pesos [$297] compared to 600 to 1,000 pesos [$93 to $155] for gear available on the market,” Mendoza said.
Clumia and Mendoza both called for Duque to resign for failing to account for public funds that should have been spent on Covid patients and health workers.
