Mendoza: Quelling effects of crisis to teachers, personnel

Mendoza: Quelling effects of crisis to teachers, personnel

CLASSES are suspended. Teachers were also mandated to stay at home. All non-teaching personnel from central to school levels were asked to either maintain skeletal forces and/or work from home to help the government flatten the curb amid the threat of Covid-19 spread.

The Department of Education (DepEd) further extended needed help to its teaching and non-teaching personnel through various financial measures and interventions, including a three-month moratorium on loan payment for all DepEd Provident Fund (PF) loans without interest.

Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones before she was tested positive of Covid-19, approved on Monday, April 6, a Board Resolution No. 02, s. 2020 of the DepEd Provident Fund National Board of Trustees, which imposed a three-month moratorium on payment of loans, in compliance with the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 11469 or the "Bayanihan to Heal as One Act".

Consequently, the payment period for the said Provident Fund will also be extended for an additional three months while borrowers will not be charged accrued interest and penalty during the moratorium period, which can be extended upon the extension of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) by the President.

Aside from the said adjustment in the payment of PF loan, DepEd also secured an agreement with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) for a grant of moratorium in three-month suspension of loan payments for their members and pensioners which will be applicable for March to May, 2020.

In her message of gratitude, the Secretary expressed DepEd's appreciation to GSIS, as well as the Provident Fund National Board of Trustees, for their kind understanding of the burdens of our teachers and staff and vowed to continue the efforts to protect the interests of DepEd officials, teaching and non-teaching personnel.

Because of the arrangement, loan amortizations automatically deducted under the DepEd's payroll system for April 2020 on behalf of GSIS and DepEd PF will also be returned eventually to concerned DepEd borrowers through special payroll and will be credited to their respective payroll accounts.

To maximize its efforts to provide DepEd employees with reprieve from today's crisis, the Department has further coordinated an acceptable arrangement with private lending institutions (PLIs) to its Automatic Payroll Deduction System (APDS) program, which is aimed to be more responsive and beneficial to all concerned employees. According to Usec. Annalyn M. Sevilla, DepEd will not remit loan deductions for the payroll month of April 2020 to the PLIs but instead the said amount will be refunded to the concerned DepEd employees.

To further quell the anxiety of its personnel, no deductions will be effected during the ECQ period and the termination of the loan amortizations, in effect, will be automatically extended in DepEd's payroll program for one month or based on the duration of the ECQ period.

With regard to the release of the Performance-Based Bonus (PBB), the Department was told by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that four DepEd regional offices (Region II, IV-A, V, and XII) were already endorsed for processing and eventual releasing of PBB funds for school-based personnel while others are undergoing various phases of processing and consistently following up for other regions' PBB and the request for reconsideration for eligibility to grant PBB for non-school-based personnel, as well.

This Corner hopes that these measures will really bring hope to the DepEd teachers and personnel particularly in this trying time.

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