The Alliance of Concerned Teachers today called on Malacanang to ensure that public school teachers will receive the maximum amount of Php 10,000 additional cash gift announced by the Department of Budget and Management yesterday.

According to DBM Secretary Rolando Andaya, 1.1 million national government employees will start receiving the bonus starting next week. A minimum of Php 7,000 will be provided by the national government while another Php 3,000 may be given to employees, with the funds to be sourced from agency savings.

Alliance of Concerned Teachers national chairperson Antonio Tinio noted that due to the sheer number of public school teachers and employees under the Department of Education, the agency never has enough savings to cover the full amount required for the additional bonus. DepEd employs over 500,000 public school teachers and approximately 40,000 non-teaching personnel.

Tinio called on DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus and Sec. Andaya to work together to ensure that DepEd personnel receive the full Php 10,000 cahs gift at the soonest possible time. “DepEd should determine as soon as possible how much savings it has and how much more funds it needs to cover the Php 3,000 to be sourced from savings. We hope that Malacanang and the DBM will then release additional funds to cover the shortfall.”

ACT also warned against delays in the release of the additional cash gift in previous years. “If and when DepEd somehow finds sufficient funds for the full amount, we hope that the bonus will be in teachers’ hands by Christmas. In the past two years, the full amount was paid to teachers as late as the first quarter of the next year,” said Tinio.

“Teachers and employees of DepEd deserve the full year-end cash gift, in recognition of their dedicated service to over 19 million public school students nationwide, in spite of difficult, and in some cases, even dangerous conditions,” concluded Tinio. #