May 7 is Health Workers’ Day

There are two events happening on May 7. The first is the resumption of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona; the second is the observance of National Health Workers’ Day, as mandated by Republic Act 10069.

While President Aquino is deeply interested in the removal of Corona from the Supreme Court, sadly, the plight of health workers is not in his “radar.” In fact, the Aquino administration is committing a great injustice against health workers.

The Department of Health has issued a memorandum, signed by Assistant Secretary Nemesio Gako of the department’s Internal Finance and Administration Technical Cluster, ordering a substantial reduction of the benefits stipulated under the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers.

From P50 a day or P1,500 a month, our subsistence allowance was slashed to P30, for an average cut of about P700 a month. Our laundry allowance was also reduced.

And now, after the Department of Budget and Management assumed control as the final approving body before they can be released, the hazard pay and longevity pay are being eyed for phaseout.

Health workers suffer from the daily grind of poverty. Under prevailing circumstances, where prices of basic commodities keep on soaring, it is immoral for the Aquino administration to slash the salaries and benefits of health workers.

I urge our fellow hospital workers to defend the hard-won victories in our long struggle for health workers’ rights, salaries and benefits, and the health of the people. The Magna Carta itself is a product of the life-and-death struggles of hospital workers—like Minda Luz Quesada, the founding president of the Alliance of Health Workers and one of those who drafted the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

It is said that the righteousness of a government can be measured by how it values its health workers, people who safeguard the people’s health and provide health care to the most vulnerable. Thus this fight is not about money per se, this is about our unimpeachable right to have decent and living wages and benefits as the custodian of our country’s health. This is about the health workers’ dignity!

—SEAN HERBERT VELCHEZ, RN,

president,

National Orthopedic

Hospital Workers Union-

Alliance of Health Workers,

Philippine Orthopedic Center,

Banawe, Quezon City