THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) expressed its strong commitment to help medical frontliners by giving priority to the Health Emergency Allowance (HEA) in the drafting of the FY 2025 National Budget.
This was part of the message of DBM Legal and Legislative Functional Group Head Undersecretary Janet Abuel, who represented DBM Secretary Amenah “Mina” Pangandaman during the third public hearing and inquiry of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, spearheaded by Senate Committee Chairperson Bong Go.
Abuel presented several important details and updates on the HEA releases in front of Senators Jinggoy Estrada, JV Ejercito, Raffy Tulfo, and Bato Dela Rosa.
It was clarified that the 2024 allocation for HEA worth P19.962 billion has been comprehensively released to the Department of Health (DOH) in the first quarter of the year. In total, the DBM has already released P76.2 billion for HEA and COVID-19 Sickness and Death Compensation since 2021.
The HEA budget is part of the P91.283 billion released funds to DOH for the provision of benefits for health workers and providing for their allowances under the Bayanihan Law, which addresses the claims of eligible public and private healthcare workers.
Earlier in April, Pangandaman renewed her call to the DOH to finalize its HEA mapping to remedy the issues that slow down the release of the grants. Committee chair Bong Go likewise expressed his concern about unreconciled records.