BY THE FIRST week of December, a total of 14,018 barangay service volunteers in Iloilo province would start receiving cash allowance of P4,000 each – a picayune compensation for a year’s work. These barangay service volunteers include Barangay Health Workers (8,356). The rest are Day Care Workers, Barangay Service Point Officers and Barangay Nutrition Scholars serving 1,721 barangays.
Barangay service volunteers help deliver government frontline services to the villages, even to the most remote. But as volunteers they have no fixed salaries. They only receive honoraria from the barangays where they are assigned.
Among of the most important of these volunteers are the barangay health workers, or BHWs. They are indispensable in the provision of primary health care in communities. They are the government’s foot soldiers in the delivery of basic health services, including health and nutrition education; family planning services; maternal, newborn, and child healthcare; and promotion of good hygiene and sanitation practices. In barangay health centers, they provide assistance and support to physicians, nurses and midwives.
Despite the significant role of barangay health workers, however, their work is primarily anchored on volunteerism. In 1995, Republic Act 7883 (Barangay Health Workers and Benefits and Incentives Act of 1995) sought to provide incentives to them in recognition of their services. It specified that BHWs are entitled to hazard and subsistence allowance; trainings, civil service eligibility, free legal services, and access to loan services. However, it did not provide fixed rates for allowances, and local government units vary in the rates and benefits they provide. Consequently, many BHWs become underpaid and receive far less than what their other counterparts get.
Last year House Bill 4277 was filed to enhance the benefits and incentives of BHWs in recognition of their important role and the work they do. It mandates fixed monthly honoraria and a floor or a minimum for hazard and subsistence allowances, in addition to other incentives. What happened to it?
The presence of health workers in the barangays is crucial to ensure that people in different parts of the country, including in remote, underserved areas, can avail themselves of proper medical attention. Moreover, BHWs fill the gap brought about by the dwindling number of health workers in the Philippines due to continued migration of nurses and doctors for better opportunities abroad.
Taking care of our BHW is consistent with the duty of the State to protect and promote the health of its citizens and to instill health consciousness among them. It is also in keeping with the vision to provide universal healthcare access to all citizens.
