MANILA, April 16 -- The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has called on the Department of Health (DOH) to address the bottlenecks in the release of the unpaid health emergency allowance (HEA) claims of healthcare workers.

DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman made the call on Monday, as she noted that her office has released around PHP91.283 billion to the DOH for the disbursement of health workers' benefits and allowances.

"To date po, mula po nang nagsimula ang pandemic at saka po nagkaroon ng batas para mabigyan ng compensation 'yung ating mga health workers, PHP91.283 billion na po ang nare-release ng DBM (when the pandemic started and the law for the distribution of health workers' compensation was enacted, the DBM already relea...