Updates

Public school teachers are in an uproar after Department of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus issued an order directing that a portion of their yearly clothing allowance be paid in kind rather than in cash.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers today called for the scrapping of a government plan to subject teachers and students to random drug testing.

The Department of Education and the Commission on Education have announced that they will implement the drug testing program in highs schools and universities and colleges nationwide in response to Pres. Gloria Arroyo’s renewed campaign against illegal drugs.

    The Alliance of Concerned Teachers today called on government to ensure the safe release of three public school teachers kidnapped by unidentified armed men last Friday.

    ACT led around 20 public school teachers who gathered at the T. Morato rotunda in Quezon City , where they held a brief program and candle lighting ceremony to call for the immediate release of their fellow teachers.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers today urged the Department of Education to ensure full payment of last year’s year-end performance bonus.

According to ACT chairperson Antonio Tinio, tens of thousands of public school teachers nationwide have yet to receive full payment of the P10,000 year-end performance awarded by the government to all civil servants last December. According to a Malacañang directive, Php 7,000 would be funded by the national government while the remaining Php 3,000 was to be paid from the savings of the agency concerned.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers today urged Malacañang to make sure that public school teachers nationwide are given the full amount of the year-end performance bonus granted by government to all government employees.

Hundreds of teachers from all over the country gathered today to denounce renewed efforts by the Arroyo administration to push for changes in the 1987 Constitution.

They made the call at a press conference in P. Bernardo Elementary School in Cubao, Quezon City , where over three hundred teachers have assembled for the opening of the 12th National Congress of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers today led a protest action at the head office of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in Pasay City to demand the immediate refund of illegal deductions made by the state pension fund from their claims and benefits.

Around 200 teachers from Metro Manila and Central Luzon picketed the main gate of the GSIS, bearing placards with the slogan “GSIS refund now!”

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers today expressed renewed concern regarding the status of the Government Service Insurance System’s Global Investment Fund (GIF) in the light of a further downturn in global investment markets.

The GIF is a US$ 1 billion fund, comprising approximately 10% of the total assets of GSIS. In February 2008, GSIS awarded $600 million to two fund managers, Credit Agricole and ING.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers today led 200 teachers from public schools and state universities in a mass delegation to the House of Representatives in Quezon City to urge legislators to pass a bill granting them a P9,000 salary increase.

    The libel cases filed by Government Service Insurance System President and General Manager Winston Garcia against me and a number of journalists yesterday are intended to intimidate and harass into silence those who are critical of the GSIS.