DepEd 7 shells out P246M for CV personnel’s incentive

AROUND 82,000 teaching and non-teaching personnel of the Department of Education (DepEd) 7 will receive a P3,000 incentive as part of the agency’s 125th founding anniversary celebration.

DepEd 7 Director Salustiano Jimenez told SunStar Cebu on Friday, June 23, 2023, that this will serve as a milestone anniversary bonus that happens every five years to eligible employees.

“We know for a fact that teachers and those [non-teaching personnel] in DepEd worked hard and gave their services,” he said, adding that this is a way of recognizing their efforts.

Of the total number of beneficiaries in the region, 85 percent or 70,000 are teaching personnel.

Jimenez said the incentive will be received by the grantees on or after the anniversary celebration of DepEd through their payroll accounts.

As specified in DepEd Order 11 s. 2023 entitled “Policy on the Grant of Anniversary Bonus in the Department of Education,” the eligible DepEd personnel shall receive an anniversary bonus not exceeding P3,000, provided that they have rendered at least one year of service.

Eligible officials and employees include those who are employed on a full-time or part-time basis, permanent, coterminous, provisional, temporary, casual, or contractual, whose employment is in the nature of a regular employee.

Among those who are ineligible are those who were absent without official leave or were no longer in service as of June 23 of the milestone year; officials and employees found guilty of any offense in connection with their work during the five-year interval between the milestone years; and consultants, contracts of service, or job-order employees.

The anniversary incentive will be sourced from the administration of personnel benefits as authorized in the General Appropriations Act of every milestone year.

According to DepEd, some 958,000 members of its teaching and non-teaching personnel will receive the incentive.

Abellana National School (ANS) teacher Liezel Cenas, who will be celebrating her 10th year of service this July, said she appreciates the help given by DepEd.

Cenas said that although the P3,000 incentive is not much, any financial reward is already a big help.

“This will serve as a reward to myself, especially that I will be marking a decade in service. Of course, this will used to buy essential goods,” she said.

Cenas said she has yet to receive her incentive.

Alliance of Concerned Teachers 7 president Antonia Lim, also a math teacher in ANS, said the incentive should be increased.

Lim said she acknowledges that the incentive will help the grantees but she believes they should receive more, especially the teaching personnel.

“The teachers will be happy at least there is an incentive, but that amount is not enough,” Lim said in Cebuano.

She pointed out that the grant of the milestone anniversary incentive to eligible employees was approved during the administration of the late former president Fidel Ramos, but since then, the amount has not increased.

“They consider teachers as heroes, but do heroes deserve to be under compensated and burdened with a lot of work?” Lim asked.