Not paid their salaries for a year: Day care teachers seek help

CEBU, Philippines - Some 35 day care teachers asked the help of the Office of the Mayor for the release of their salary that has been pending for a year now.

Six day care teachers were at City Hall yesterday to tell the mayor their concerns about the salary that has not been released since January 2011.

Since Mayor Michael Rama is out of the country, they were referred to Philip Zafra, the mayor’s Chief of Staff.

One teacher, who requested anonymity, said that just yesterday morning P6,000 were deposited in their account but the amount represents only their salary for the month of November.

“Ganinang buntag ra gyud mi nakadawat sa among sweldo sukad-sukad, for the month of November pa gyud. Asa naman napunta ang sweldo namo sa ubang mga buwan?” the day care teacher said.

She said that they have been following up their honorarium but their supervisors are giving them the run around.

They asked the Local School Board which holds office at the Department of Education-Cebu City Division Office but they were told that they are under the Department of Social Welfare and Services.

But when they went to DSWS, they were told to go to DepEd to follow up their salary.

The City Government is supposed to give them monthly honorarium. Day care teachers are supposed to receive P6,000 honorarium a month, a portion of which comes from the barangays.

Barangay counterpart on the P6,000 honorarium of teachers varies in different barangays.

Some barangays have a P2,000 counterpart while some have P1,500 so the bulk of their monthly salary comes from the city government. Day care teachers who complained yesterday said that they regularly receive their honorarium from the barangay.

“Pero gamay ra kaayo nang among madawat sa barangay. Ang among mga anak, dili intawon namo mapalitan sa ilang gusto kay wala mi’y makadawat sukad sa among sweldo,” she said.

The 35 day care workers whose salaries are delayed for many months already were hired last year.

“Giingnan mi nila na wala’y budget para sa among sweldo, nganung gi-hire man mi kung wala’y budget?” one of the day care teachers said.

Not all of them have pending salaries for one year since some of them started in April and May.

Some of their fellow teaches have already resigned because of the delayed salary.

The processing of the honorarium of day care teachers used to be supervised by the office of Councilor Eduardo Rama. Councilor Rama’s staff said day care workers used to receive their honorarium on time. However the task was taken over by the Office of the Vice Mayor.

Another day care teacher who also refused to be named said Christmas, New Year and Sinulog have passed, but they had no money to celebrate.

“Kung dili pa lang mi maluoy sa mga bata, hagbay ra mi nag-resign,” he said. — (FREEMAN)