THE Bacolod City Council has approved a resolution requesting President Rodrigo Duterte and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año to consider the inclusion of all barangay health emergency response team (BHERTS) in Covid-19 Special Risk Allowance (SRA).
Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, who acted as presiding officer, said Monday, September 27, that the resolution was unanimously approved during their special session on Saturday, September 25.
Familiaran said the City Council also ratified the memorandum of agreement between the City Government of Bacolod and the Department of Health (DOH)-Western Visayas to grant the SRA to the qualified barangay health workers (BHWs) for the period of December 2020 and April 2021.
He added that the budget was taken from the national government.
The qualified BHW will receive about P3,000 a month and it will be released next month, the vice mayor said.
Familiaran noted that the beneficiaries are only those BHWs who were assigned in isolation or quarantine facilities in the city.
Aside from BHERTS, the City Council is pushing for additional allowances for ambulance drivers.
"BHERTS are also risking their lives in the fight against Covid-19," he said.
Bacolod City has a total of more than 800 BHWs and more than 100 of them were assigned in various quarantine facilities in the city.
Familiaran said the allowance of the BHWs also depends on the capacity of the barangay to pay them.
"We are hopeful that all of them (BHERTS) will receive the same allowances because they are also risking their lives for our Covid-19 patients. They are our new heroes, our frontliners," he said.
He added that in previous month, one of the BWHs assigned in quarantine facility in Bacolod died due to Covid-19.