To protect health workers, front liners and patients from discrimination, harassment, and violence, Senator Risa Hontiveros filed Senate Bill No. 1436 or the “Mandatory Protection of Health Workers, Frontliners and Patients Act”, Thursday.
The bill will address different threats and acts of violence which were recently reported in some areas of the country amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and will amend Section 9 of Republic Act No. 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act, which was also co-authored by Hontiveros.
“In the midst of this crisis, our health workers continue to work at the frontlines, risking their and their families’ health and well-being for the health and well-being of our community,” Hontiveros said in a statement.
The senator went on by saying that discrimination to healthcare workers and individuals in the front lines is a “crime against public health”.
The measure prohibits “all forms of discrimination, or unfair or unjust treatment against a health worker, a frontliner, or any act that has the effect of actually causing or placing the same under a reasonable fear of physical or emotional harm, or impedes the conduct of duties, provided that of the same act is punishable under a different law, the law that imposes a higher penalty will apply”
The bill also prohibits “All forms of physical, emotional and psychological violence, or the threat thereof of such violence, against an individual suspected of being, or confirmed to be, a carrier of the notifiable disease, whether the same is true or not.”
Violators will be fined from P20,000 to P50,000 and one to six months of imprisonment, Hontiveros added.
Commentaires