Hontiveros: Legarda sat on proposed benefits for BHWs

Liberal Party senatorial candidate Risa Hontiveros said Sen. Loren Legarda sat on the bill proposed by LP vice presidential candidate Senator Mar Roxas seeking to include barangay health workers under the coverage of the Philippine Health Insurance (PhilHealth).

Hontiveros made the statement as she branded as lies text messages claiming that Roxas voted against giving additional benefits to barangay health workers.

Hontiveros said that Senate Bill No. 3012, authored by Roxas, and other measures seeking to improve the plight of BHWs in the country are still pending with the Senate Committee on Health, chaired by Legarda.

Legarda took over the Senate Committee on Health after she signed the resolution booting out Sen. Manuel Villar from the Senate Presidency. Villar is now Legarda’s presidential runningmate.

Senate Bill No. 3012 proposes that each barangay should have at least 5 health workers, each of whom should have salaries equivalent to Sangguniang Barangay members. It likewise proposes security of tenure for barangay health workers by including them in the coverage of civil service rules.

“Pero nabalewala ang panukalang batas na ito dahil hindi tinrabaho ni Legarda na siyang chairman ng Senate Committee on Health na maipasa ito. Kung susuriing mabuti, mukhang hinahadlangan pa nga ni Legarda ang pagkakapasa nito (All these proposed benefits were set aside because Legarda did not do her job as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health),” Hontiveros said.

“Mabuti pa si Roxas, napababa niya sa kalahati ang presyo ng mga gamot na noo’y di abot-kaya ng kahit mismong mga BHW. Mabuti na lang at tinrabaho ni Roxas ang pagkakapasa ng Cheaper Medicines bill (Unlike her, Roxas fared well and succeeded in bringing down by half the prices of medicines that were not affordable even to our barangay health workers. Roxas did well in ensuring the passage of the Cheaper Medicines law),” she added.