With likely OK of Magna Carta for BHWs

CAMARINES Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte is confident that the country’s estimated 500,000 barangay health workers (BHWs) will finally get the job security plus a slew of other benefits that they have long deserved as frontline wellness volunteers in their respective communities, with the impending passage of a consolidated bill on the Malacañan Palace-endorsed Magna Carta of BHWs.

Once both the Senate and the House of Representatives draw up and ratify the consolidated magna carta for submission to the Palace, Villafuerte said that all that it will take from there to make this happen is for President Marcos to sign this would-be enrolled bill before the 19th Congress adjourns sine die in June.

A lead author in the House of Representatives of its version of this proposed magna carta for BHWs, the Villafuerte, National Unity Party (NUP) president, said that, “The enactment of this law will de-politicize the employment of BHWs in their respective local government units (LGUs) and at the same time entitle them to a broad set of economic incentives and benefits—ranging from a P3,000 monthly allowance and hazard pay to insurance coverage and free medical plus legal services.”

“Once this proposed magna carta becomes a law, our BHWs who are now categorized as community health volunteers and who receive paltry allowances depending on whatever rates are adopted by the LGUs where they work for, will no longer be at the mercy of local chief executives who, at present, can fire them capriciously over their perceived adverse political leanings,” Villafuerte, a former three-term governor, said.

Villafuerte, had authored House Bill (HB) No. 301, which was one of several pro-BHW bills consolidated into HB 6557, which the House unanimously approved on third and final reading with 258 votes in December 2022 yet.

He had introduced HB 301 with fellow CamSur Reps. Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata along with the Bicol Saro partylist.

The likelihood of this proposed magna carta being ratified by the 19th Congress and then submitted to President Marcos for his approval and signing into law surfaced as the Senate passed its version of this pro-BHW measure during the last session week before both chambers took a three-month break for the midterm polls on May 12.

Senate Bill (SB) No. 2838 was passed by the Senate on third and final reading by a 19-0-0 vote.

“Once both chambers comes up with a consolidated bill via the bicam (bicameral committee) process and then ratify it prior to submission to the Palace, President Marcos is expected to sign this Magna Carta for BHWs, considering that this is one of the priority measures for urgent legislative action that our Chief Executive has identified with the Ledac (Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Committee),” Villafuerte said.

This is because following the House’s approval of this proposed magna carta three years ago, President Marcos said he was elated that the House had passed this measure because it would greatly benefit BHWs.

“Kami na dumaan sa local government … will never argue with the importance of the barangay health workers and for that matter all the volunteers at the barangay level at ang BHW—siyempre kayo pinakamarami. Lalo na ngayon na maraming sakuna, we know that we can always count on the BHW,” said the President who was elected vice governor of Ilocos Norte in 1981 and then served as its governor from 1983 to 1986 and from 1998 to 2007.

The President said then that he expected no opposition to this bill’s passage as he recalled that our BHWs had played a major role at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic—providing services, conducting house-to-house visits and deciding who among the people in their respective communities population had to be sent to hospitals and isolation facilities for treatment.

In a November 2024 report, the Nyon-based UNI Global Union said there are about 500,000 registered and unregistered BHWs in the Philippine.

According to Villafuerte, the House-passed HB 6557 provides for security of tenure in conferring a first-grade Civil Service Eligibility to every accredited BHW who has rendered at least five years of continuous service as a community health worker.

“With the ever increasing growth rate of our population, our BHWs are truly indispensable as basic medical frontliners in local communities,” Villafuerte said. “They are always in the frontline of providing maternal, newborn and child health care in the neighborhood, and act as health educators and community organizers in promoting the government’s health awareness campaigns down to the smallest unit of our society: the family. Undeniably, the nature of their work is full-time.”

He pointed out, however, that despite their indispensability in community healthcare delivery, “our BHWs are sadly treated as mere volunteers under RA No. 7883 who each receive about five weeks of training and meager pay.”

RA 7883 refers to Republic Act (RA) 7883, or “The Barangay Health Workers’ Benefits and Incentives Act of 1995.”

“Moreover, it is an uncontroverted fact that BHWs are at the mercy of local government officials, in the absence of their security of tenure,” said Villafuerte. “They can be terminated capriciously at the instance of perceived adverse political leanings. Thus, the present system allows them to be politicized. We must put an end to this unscrupulous practice.”

For Villafuerte, “This proposed magna carta thus aims to revise the existing law in order to recognize and improve on the realities presently at work. We must recognize that our barangay health workers and the barangay health services they help deliver at the grassroots level are keys to the country’s attainment of high and inclusive growth through sustainable human development.”

HB 6557 further requires, he said, the municipal, city or provincial government to set up with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) “a grievance mechanism to settle complaints regarding acts of discrimination against or unjust removal of BHWs from their jobs.”

This substitute bill likewise requires the Department of Health (DOH) to draw up and maintain a national registry of BHWs who are entitled to receive the new set of economic incentives and benefits, in recognition of their indispensable role as basic medical frontliners in our communities, he said.

A similar Magna Carta for BHWs was passed by the House of Representatives during the 18th Congress, but its counterpart bill was not passed by the Senate.

Under the House-passed HB 6557, all accredited BHWs shall be entitled to insurance coverage and benefits from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the cost of which shall be shouldered by the concerned LGUs.

For this purpose, the GSIS is tasked to design an insurance benefit package suited for BHWs, he said.

For the accredited BHWs’ upskilling, Villafuerte said the bill directs the DOH to work with the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and other concerned agencies and non­-government organizations (NGOs) on providing information and opportunities for training, education and career enrichment programs to accredited community health workers.

Villafuerte noted that BHWs live in the communities they serve, and act as change agents in these communities.

“They provide information, education and motivation services for primary health care, maternal and child health, child rights, family planning and nutrition. They may administer immunizations and regular weighing of children, and they often assist midwives in providing birthing services,” he said.

On average, he said, BHW volunteers are expected to work with around 20 families each in their respective communities. ”However the scarcity of trained individuals has narrowed down the number of volunteers, especially in some remote areas, where, at present, only one or two volunteers service an entire barangay.”

Villafuerte traced the decline in the number of BHWs in barangays to the meager compensation that they get, with their monthly allowance ranging from just P500 or higher, depending on the pay rates and other benefits granted by LGUs.

“Given that BHWs work full-time, such compensation is therefore hardly enough for these workers to make both ends meet for their families,” he said. “It is thus high time for these community healthcare frontliners to receive more support in return for all the services they selflessly provide in their local communities.”

The DOH, in coordination with the TESDA and other concerned agencies, are required under HB 6557 to assist LGUs in developing education modules or materials for BHWs, including those promoting traditional and complementary medicine.

Also, LGUs are tasked to establish their own training centers for their BHWs and other health workers, with the assistance of the TESDA, NGOs and other concerned agencies.

These local governments are to implement a development program for BHWs that will allow these health workers to benefit from the ladderized training as provided under RA 10968, otherwise known as “The Philippine Qualification Framework Act,” and RA 10647, otherwise known as “The Ladderized Education Act of 2014.”

The House-passed Magna Carta defines a BHW as one who has received training for this purpose under any accredited government agency or NGO, and who has been voluntarily rendering primary healthcare services in communities after having been accredited by the LGUs’ local health boards for this healthcare job.

Every accredited BHW actively and regularly performing his or her duties and responsibilities is entitled under HB 6557 to receive the following incentives and benefits:

· Monthly honorarium of P3,000;

· Hazard allowance, which in no case shall be less than P1,000 per month; Subsistence allowance for meals worth P100 per meal and transportation allowance worth P1,000 per month;

· 20% discount on all items enumerated under Section 4(a) of RA 9994, otherwise known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, provided that “the privileges shall not be claimed if the BHW is eligible for a higher discount as may be granted by the commercial establishment and/or other existing laws;”

· Health benefits such as free medical care, including surgery and surgical expenses; free medicines, x-ray, and other laboratory fees, when confined in any public hospital or health institution;

· Emergency assistance not exceeding P5,000 chargeable against the fund of the barangay concerned, for expenses incurred in the nearest private hospital or clinic, in case of extreme emergency where there is no available public hospital for treating the ailing BHW;

· Mandatory and immediate membership in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) as indirect contributors;

· GSIS insurance coverage and benefits, to be borne by the LGUs concerned;

· Cash gift of not less than the minimum monthly honorarium to be given every December from the general fund of the barangay or from such other funds appropriated by the national government for the purpose;

· Disability benefit of P2,000 per year for any BHW who sustains injury or sickness in the course of the performance of his or her duties;

· Free Legal Services, to be provided by the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) in cases of coercion, interference and civil and criminal cases filed by or against any BHW in connection with his or her performance of duties;

· Preferential access to loans, with the agencies providing loan services setting aside 1% of their loanable funds for organized BHW groups that have community-based income generating projects in support of health programs;

· One-time gratuity cash incentive of not less than P10,000 as loyalty and dedication bonus for BHWs who have continuously and satisfactorily served at least 15 years; and

· First-grade Civil Service Eligibility to any accredited BHW who has rendered at least five years of continuous service.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ryan Ponce Pacpaco