Angara, who chairs the Senate finance committee and led the bicameral conference committee meetings for the measure, said Bayanihan 2 was crafted primarily to ensure that the government’s programs against the COVID-19 pandemic will continue, thus, a big chunk of the budget will go to the health sector.
Under the Bayanihan 2, P40.5-billion would go to health-related programs, which includes P13.5-billion for the continuous employment and hiring of emergency human resources for health ; augmentation for operations of Department of Health hospitals; special risk allowance for private and private workers; free life insurance, accommodation, transportation and meals for health workers and compensation for health workers who contract the COVID-19 or die while fighting the pandemic.
But on top of the P100,000 cash to be given to those who contract severe COVID-19 and the P1-million cash aid for the family of those who died while fighting the disease, P15,000 would also be provided for those who would have mild or moderate cases. According to Angara, the measure also allocates a total of P4.5-billion for the construction of temporary medical isolation and quarantine facilities, field hospitals, dormitories for frontliners and for the expansion of hospital capacity across the country.