Health workers 'extremely dismayed' over Duterte's last SONA
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 27) — President Rodrigo Duterte failed to address the concerns of healthcare workers on low wages and unpaid benefits, as well as lay out concrete measures in handling the COVID-19 pandemic in his last State of the Nation Address, a healthcare workers group said.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) said it was "extremely dismayed" over the President's last SONA, noting that it only included words of praise for medical frontliners.
"We need the sincerity and political will of your government to proactively address the economic and health crisis and address the long-standing problems of health workers such as low wages, unjust benefits, and severe understaffing of hospitals that caused health workers to become overly [fatigued] and burned out," said Robert Mendoza, AHW National President.
Mendoza earlier pointed out that one nurse would often tend to 35 patients.
Two days before Monday's SONA, some healthcare workers said they have hardly felt the billions of pesos allocated for frontliners under Bayanihan 1 and 2. For one, despite the significant budget, they said they have yet to receive their special risk allowance, or SRA.
Last month, the Department of Budget and Management said the payment of the SRA should be released not later than June 30, the same day the Bayanihan 2 expired.
No plan
The group pointed out that the lack of a "comprehensive, systematic, scientific and concrete" plan to handle the health crisis further exposed the President and his administration as "grossly sloppy, incompetent and negligent."
In his speech, Duterte warned lockdowns may be put in place similar to the "early days" of the pandemic if the highly contagious Delta variant continues to spread.
"I really do not know what to do. I have to listen to the task force. This is a group of people...[who] would give you advice collectively," he said.
The country has so far recorded at least 119 Delta variant cases.
