Friday, August 15, 2008 DepEd hit over delay in release of teachers' allowance
A TEACHERS group on Thursday decried the continuing delay in the payment of their "over and above" (OA) allowance despite the Department of Budget and Management's (DBM) release of the initial amount of P77.8 million as partial payment to them.
Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) president Benjo Basas said they have been waiting for the payment since Education Secretary Jesli Lapus announced on July 15 the release of the funds, but up to now not a single centavo has been paid.
"We at TDC appropriate the pronouncements made by Secretary Lapus that the decade-long government liability to teachers through the Over and Above Allowance will soon be paid. A month after the pronouncement it is yet to be released. We would like to know the reason why since he (Lapus) said the money has already been released," Basas said.
Earlier, Lapus said about 10,000 teachers in the National Capital Region (NCR) stand to receive the allowance for the year 1999. He said some of them might even receive up to P60,000.
"Our teachers deserve this. They have worked tediously to establish government's accountability and have lobbied tirelessly for it," he said.
The funds were sourced from the 2007 savings of DepEd-NCR.
Among the school divisions whose teachers will receive the allowance are Caloocan, Malabon/Navotas, Valenzuela, Marikina, Mandaluyong, Muntinlupa, Las Piñas, Parañaque, Pasig/San Juan, Quezon City and Taguig/Pateros.
Basas said DepEd owed them a total of P500 million in over and above allowance.
TDC secretary general Melchor Cayabyab, for his part, said they are at a loss why the amount was not yet given to the teachers considering that the DBM has already released it.
He said the DepEd's failure to release the allowance before the month ends would lead them to stage protest actions.
"We can still wait for the allowance until the end of this month, otherwise we will be forced to hold a protest," said Cayabyab.
Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) chairman Antonio Tinio said the government only paid roughly 10 percent of teachers' OA allowance.
Tinio said their pressing concern is the immediate payment of teachers who should qualify to receive an allowance.
He appealed to Lapus to ensure that teachers' back pay is included in the proposal for the 2009 budget. (AH/Sunnex)
