Teacher’s group worried over bonus shortfall

A militant teachers group over the weekend asked Malacañang to ensure the distribution of the full amount of the P10,000 year-end performance bonus granted to all government employees, including thousands of public school teachers.

In a statement, Alliance of Concerned Teachers Chairperson Antonio Tinio said that because of the sheer number of its personnel and the limited budget at its disposal, the Department of Education (DepEd) has always encountered difficulty in coming up with sufficient savings to pay its personnel the P3,000 share in the performance bonus for its personnel and employees.

“As a result, teachers end up being shortchanged,” Tinio said.

“Last year, some teachers received the full [bonus] amount, some got the P3,000 share as late as February, while others were not paid at all. We hope that last year’s experience won’t be repeated this time around,” he added.

The group estimated that the Education department needs approximately P1.5 billion in savings to provide all the P3,000 counterpart for each of its teaching and non-teaching personnel.

“[Education] Secretary Jesli Lapus should immediately order an agency-wide accounting of savings for the year, consolidate these savings, request additional funds from Malacañang in the event of a shortfall, and release the funds to DepEd personnel before the year ends,” Tinio said.

Tinio, likewise, called on the Education department to give year-end performance bonus to public school teachers hired by local governments, including those who are contractuals.

“Nationwide, there are now approximately 25,000 of these contractual teachers hired by local governments. They are among the most exploited in the teaching profession since they have no job security and often receive less pay and benefits than nationally hired teachers,” said Tinio

President Gloria Arroyo earlier authorized the payment of the P10,000 performance bonus starting Monday to all employees of national government agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations. The bonus would be given to employees who are permanent, temporary, casual or contractual.

The national government would provide P7,000 of the P10,000 bonus while the remaining P3,000 would be sourced from the savings of the respective government agency.
— James Konstantin Galvez, Manila Times