City teachers to get bonus next week

CEBU, Philippines -  Officials of the Cebu City School Board assured the 5,054 public school teachers in the city that their P10,000 cash bonus will be released not later than Friday next week.

Only a few public school teachers under the Department of Education (DepEd) went to the Plaza Independencia yesterday afternoon to celebrate the Teacher’s Day because thinking that they could not get their bonus as promised by Mayor Michael Rama.

Councilor Jose Daluz III, the presiding officer of the Cebu City School Board, said they decided to temporarily call off the distribution of the teachers’ bonus at the Plaza Independencia yesterday for security reasons.

“Nahadlok mi nga basin ug modagsang ang mga criminal elements kay tiaw mo singko mil ka maestra tag dies mil or fifty million pesos ang kwarta nga i-distribute,” Daluz said. (We decided not to distribute at the Plaza Independencia for security reasons because that would mean we would be bringing P50 million cash with us.)

But Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña described the explanation of Daluz as very flimsy because the distribution of cash bonus to the teachers is just similar to the distribution of cash assistance to the senior citizens.

The report is that the City School Board has second thoughts on whether the Special Education Fund (SEF) budget can be used to grant cash bonus to teachers without violating the law.

The Special Education Fund is the one percent of the total real property tax collections of a local government unit that shall be automatically released to the local school board.

Section 272 of the Local Government Code provides that the proceeds of SEF shall be used for the construction and maintenance of public schools, buildings, purchase of facilities and equipment, education research, books, sports development as determined by the Local School Board.

But while there was no provision in Republic Act 7160 that the SEF can be spent for the salaries and granting of allowances to public school teachers, a press release issued by DepEd several months ago clarified that it can be used for that purpose.

City Treasurer Emma Villarete said the city, through the Local School Board, shouldered the expenses for the salaries of the locally hired public school teachers for the past several years and it was not disallowed by the Commission on Audit (COA).

“We call it compensation for our locally hired teachers and for years COA did not disallow their honorarium or compensation, including that of the night teachers, substitute and others for their services rendered, but the granting of incentive bonus might be different,” Villarete said.

She added that the expenditures of the SEF shall be in accordance with what is under the law: “As for the allowance, what is needed is the appropriate guidelines and the legal basis to charge it against SEF because we cannot also put our teachers in a position that once disallowed they will take accountability to refund it.”

The City Council had approved a P30 million allocation for teachers’ assistance in the 2012 annual budget, but the P29 million of that amount has been realigned. —JPM (FREEMAN)