Explain late release of frontliners’ hazard pay, mayor asked

MANILA, Philippines — Mayor Kit Nieto of Cainta, Rizal has been asked to explain the late release of hazard pay and risk allowance of health workers, including a nurse who died of the coronavirus disease 2019.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said its legal department found out that the allowance of medical frontliners in the town from March to May were released only in August.

“We shall issue a show-cause order against the mayor of Cainta. In the meantime, we wish to assure the public that the DILG is committed to ensure the health and well-being of medical frontliners in all local government units as well as in our uniformed services,” DILG spokesman and Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said.

Malaya said Nieto should explain why no administrative case should be filed against him, citing a complaint filed by the family of Theresa Cruz, a nurse at the Cainta Municipal Hospital.

Cruz’s daughter Mary Joie said her mother received a hazard pay of only P150 per day when the Department of Health said COVID-19 frontliners should receive P500.

“We shall act on all reports of mistreatment, discrimination, unsafe working conditions as well as delay in the provision of benefits due to our health workers because their very lives depend on it,” Malaya said.