Teachers call for full service incentive pay

MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) is demanding that the Department of Education give public school teachers and personnel the full P20,000 service recognition incentive (SRI) following the DepEd’s announcement that it would be distributing P18,000 instead.

“As confirmed by the (DepEd), only P18,000 will be released for the payment of the SRI for all teachers and personnel of the department. This is again below the allowable amount of 20,000,” ACT chairman Vladimer Quetua said in a statement.

The distribution of SRIs for DepEd employees, including over 900,000 teachers, started yesterday.

Last week, President Marcos granted SRI and gratuity pay to government employees, including contract of service and job order workers, this year. For workers in the executive branch, which includes public school teachers and personnel, Marcos allowed P20,000 SRI.

However, due to constraints in “savings”– from where DepEd draws funds for SRI – the agency announced that only P18,000 would be distributed this year. Last year, DepEd granted P15,000. 

ACT said it has become a yearly cycle for teachers to expect a full incentive only to receive partial amounts.

“The national government should ensure that teachers and DepEd personnel receive their benefits in full and on time in recognition of their valuable service despite the challenges and crisis that the education sector are currently facing,” Quetua said.

ACT said the agency’s officials should seek additional funding from the Department of Budget and Management.

DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa said the agency’s savings could only support P18,000 per qualified employee.

He also said the DepEd’s available maintenance and other operating expenses could not be realigned to augment this year’s SRI since the MOOE is intended for use next year.

“According to our administrative order, SRIs are intended to be sourced from… our funding for personnel. And what we have this year is the only funding we have left. We really tried to look at the numbers. We tried to see if we could give P20,000, but P18,000 is the maximum of what we could give,” Poa said, stressing how this year’s SRI was bigger than last year’s P15,000.