"Barya na nga lang ang hinihingi, hindi pa masuklian ang sakripisyo ng PGH"

Dr. Gap Legaspi, PGH Director, is an expert neurosurgeon whose operating room virtuoso has saved many lives.

Juggling many duties, he treats and teaches, mentoring future doctors in the hospital he manages.

PGH performs hundreds of complex surgeries a week, on top of being a COVID-19 referral center.

The government's problem with PGH's demand that its frontliners be paid their hazard pay is far less complicated than a brain surgery. Because of the small amount involved, this funding problem is the medical equivalent of treating a bruise.

I am confident that the DBM can find a source for funds, as well as the legal justification from its thick almanac of precedents.

If it requires a clearance from the Office of the President, then the latter should grant it, and even offer funds which the President can tap. After all, he has been given broad powers to realign expenditures under the Bayanihan I and II Laws.

Plus, there are funds traditionally under presidential discretion to disburse - the Contingent Fund being one of them.

PGH is a showcase of excellence. But if its personnel will be forced to beg for what is theirs, it will be seen as an example of the national government's neglect of our pandemic frontliners.