January 31, 2021 — Most vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 are public health workers including barangay health workers (BHWs), who are at the frontlines of the battle against the pandemic. At the onset of the community quarantine, BHWs were among the first to be mobilized by the government. 

Following are accounts of the experiences and struggles of the BHWs, as gathered by the research staff of RESPOND Philippines or Responsive and Equitable Health Systems – Partnership on Non-communicable Diseases being implemented by UP Manila and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 

Victoria Mendenilla, a BHW for 24 years in Bagong Silang, Perez, Quezon, recounts the day an emergency meeting was called in March as the start of a more challenging work for her and colleagues. Having a hypertensive husband  made it more difficult to balance her responsibilities. 

“Inabot kami ng ala-siyete ng gabi sa meeting. Naabutan ko ang asawa kong tulala, dinobledoble ang inom ng gamot.” To ensure this will not happen again, she checks her husband’s blood pressure and prepares his medicine before reporting to work. Before the pandemic, BHWs in Perez are working two to three days a week. Now, they attend  to their duties almost every day to take care of persons under monitoring (PUMs). 

As a low-income island community, access to health services even before the pandemic was already a challenge in Perez and COVID-19 places a huge stress on their already strained resources, especially when needed medical services could not be provided. They have to endure hours of travelling to get to the nearest hospital in the mainland Quezon Province. 

In addition, most of her colleagues have to get extra jobs to earn additional income to their P1,200 monthly honorarium. As a consequence, some of them could not focus on their duties. By virtue of Administrative Order 26, BHWs received P2,500 worth of COVID-19 hazard pay in June 2020. 

For someone with more than two decades of serving as a community health worker and leader, Victoria calls for adequate facilities in their health center, additional compensation for BHWs, and protection for them, especially during the pandemic.

A BHW for 9 years in Perez, Quezon Province, Minda Alpuerto is afraid of contracting the disease, especially for them who live in their island. Aside from being expensive, getting to the nearest hospital with adequate facilities would entail hours of travelling. 

Six months after the March lockdown, Minda’s fear became real. A niece who lives next-door was traced to have interacted with an infected person from a neighboring community. Minda and her family were put on a mandatory 14-day home quarantine as PUMs. With her family relying only on fishing aside from her P1,200 monthly honorarium as a BHW, Minda’s husband was forced to fish daily during their quarantine period even if untested. “Wala pong choice. Wala kaming kakainin. Mamamatay kami sa gutom.”  Sewing and repairing clothes helped her earn an extra income. But one thing was clear: for a family without a stable source of income, starving to death is more dreadful than contracting the virus. 

After completing home quarantine, Minda was happy to be back at her BHW duties. But only a month after, her daughter working as a babysitter tested positive for COVID-19 having contracted the disease from her employer working in the municipal office. After getting positive results, they had to quarantine again. 

Still, Minda realized how hard it is to be isolated without assurance of surviving the deadly virus, while anxious  of how to provide for the family needs. She sees the urgent need of providing adequate assistance for quarantined families, especially for frontliners like BHWs, and a safe source of income within their homes.
Dexcelyn Talisay, mother of three,  has been a barangay health worker (BHW) in Perez, Quezon Province for more than 4 years. When COVID-19 lockdowns were imposed in March 2020, she was tasked to keep track of PUMs arriving from outside their community, checking their temperature and ensuring  their compliance with quarantine protocols. These are on top of her BHW duties, such as monitoring hypertensive senior citizens and facilitating a feeding program for malnourished children. 

During the first weeks of lockdown, they even had to provide protective equipment for themselves as face masks, face shields, and alcohol were given late. Despite having additional tasks and responsibilities and being vulnerable to contracting the disease,  they do not receive additional compensation except for the P2,500 hazard pay. While grateful, she admits that this is not enough. “Nagpapasalamat po kami pero talagang hindi pa nga iyon umabot ng two weeks kasi buhat ng mag-lockdown, yung asawa ko ay nawalan ng trabaho.” She had to find ways of earning extra, such as doing online selling.

The lack of testing for frontliners makes Dexcelyn anxious for her family’s safety whenever she gets back home from work.  Considering their crucial role in delivering national health programs and policies at the grassroots level, she is even more inspired to effectively perform her job, especially during this health crisis. “Mas dapat gampanan ‘yung trabaho namin, mas kaming nasa barangay ang inaasahan ng RHU.”
 

Summarized by Cynthia Villamor

Published in UP Manila Healthscape Special COVID-19 Issue No. 22