This was after the City Council’s committee on laws and ordinances adopted the legal opinion of city lawyers to allow Mayor Jonas Cortes to sign the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Mandaue City Government and the Department of Health-Central Visayas (DOH 7).
City Councilor Joel Seno, who chairs the committee on laws and ordinances, told reporters on Monday, June 13, 2022, that the MOA will authorize the DOH 7 to transfer funds to the Mandaue City Government so that the City can distribute the allowance.
The memorandum had just gone to its first reading during the Mandaue City Council’s regular session Monday.
Seno said the allowance would not only benefit healthcare workers in both private and public medical facilities in the city but also those non-healthcare workers who have been involved in the Covid-19 response, stressing that they are also at risk of being exposed to Covid-19. Seno, however, could say yet when will the allowance be released and how much will be distributed.
Earlier in February, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released the appropriated amount of P7.92 billion to the DOH central office to supply the One Covid-19 Allowance via Joint Circular No. 2022-0001. The Joint Circular No. 2022-0001 by the DOH and DBM states that health workers who are identified to be at high risk of Covid-19 exposure shall receive P9,000 a month.
Meanwhile, those who are determined to be at moderate and low risk are entitled to a monthly benefit of P6,000 and P3,000, respectively.