A MASS resignation looms among some medical frontliners in Negros Occidental as the national government and the Department of Health (DOH) allegedly failed to heed their call for the release of their special risk, meal and transportation allowances.
Noli Rosales, coordinator of the National Labor Union and one of the convenors of the Medical Front Liners Alliance of Negros (MFLAN), told SunStar Bacolod Wednesday, September 15, 2021, about 300 medical workers in the province have already quit their jobs since the onset of the pandemic.
Rosales said the majority of these workers are from hospitals in Bacolod City.
“We want to prevent this, but we cannot blame them because they have meager salaries and their benefits have not been given yet,” he said.
Public and private hospitals in Negros Occidental have already submitted the list of medical frontliners to the DOH so that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) could allocate funds for their allowances.
But until now, they have not received the allowances as promised by President Rodrigo Duterte, Rosales said.
Rosales said they were angry and already had enough.
"Tama na, sobra na," he said.
Rosales added they could no longer continue risking their lives in battling this national state of emergency brought by the pandemic and yet they are not given enough compensation and benefits.
The DOH has allocated P13 billion to cover health workers' allowances for meals, accommodation and transportation, wherein those who had worked for 22 straight days are entitled to receive at least P5,000 in a month.
As this developed, several members of the MFLAN will march down the main thoroughfares of Bacolod City on September 21 to show their dismay over the non-release of their benefits.
They are also joining the call for Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to resign.
Its convenor said the protest coincides with the commemoration of the declaration of martial law “because like the situation during that time, the medical front liners are also experiencing injustice.”
For them, the benefits should not just be for medical frontliners but also security guards, janitors and other non-medical workers in the hospitals because they are also at risk of contracting the disease, too, he said.
MFLAN is composed of nurses, medical technologists, orderlies and other employees from the Riverside Medical Center, Bacolod Doctors' Hospital and Queen of Mercy Hospital.
The group is calling other medical frontliners in the province to join their cause.