THE Supreme Court has granted financial assistance to judges and court personnel hospitalized due to COVID-19 retroactive to March 2020.
“With the concurrence of the members of the Court en banc, Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo has approved the grant of financial assistance to judges and court personnel who contracted COVID-19 and required in-patient care or hospital confinement, depending on the extent of their illness, from March 2020 until the current pandemic ends,” Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said in a memorandum circular dated April 27.
Court personnel who suffered mild to moderate illness due to the deadly virus will receive P15, 000 while those with severe to critical illness, but not limited to, acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock, requiring invasive ventilation, extracorporeal oxygenation, or renal replacement therapy will get P30,000.
Marquez said P50,000 will be received by the family of those who died due to COVID-19 whether they were hospitalized or not.
To avail of the financial assistance, Marquez said claimants must submit a result of the RT-PCR test to the Court Administrator that shows positive result, medical certificate stating the findings of the illness caused by the COVID-19 virus, and for the family of those who succumbed to the virus a death certificate that he or she died due to the virus or complications arising from it.
SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka said as of April 25 this year, 1,113 court personnel nationwide have tested positive for the virus while 20 have died.
Meanwhile, more than a year since the start of the pandemic, the Employees’ Compensation Commission has declared COVID-19 as a work-related disease.
ECC Executive Director Stella Zipagan-Banawis announced that COVID-19 infected workers can now receive additional compensation as provided under ECC Board Resolution No. 21-04-14.
Under the ECC resolution, COVID-19 infected workers are those who have been clinically-diagnosed cases that are supported by diagnostic proof, including reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said they have proposed that the compensation be pegged at P30,000, subject to the approval of President Duterte.
“Usually, the compensation for work-related illness is P10,000. But for COVID-19, we want it to be P30,000 sans any distinction (level of symptoms), as long as it is COVID-19,” Bello said in a virtual press briefing.
Aside from COVID-19, there are 32 other medical conditions that are in the List of Occupational and Work-Related Diseases under the Employees’ Compensation Program. — With Gerard Naval
