Talisay won't touch teachers' COLA yet

An increase in the monthly cost of living allowance for public school teachers of Talisay City that has been proposed at the city council recently will not be the priority of the committee on education at present.

Councilor Ritchel Bacaltos, chairman of the committee on education, yesterday said that there are other main concerns the local school board has given priority to such as additional classrooms and purchase of lots for school buildings.

Last week, opposition councilor Alan Bucao proposed at the city council a resolution raising the monthly COLA of teachers and principals to an amount similar to that of the district supervisor.

Teachers currently receive P300 in Cola per month, a principal receives P500 while a district supervisor receives P1,000.

But Bacaltos clarified that the city is not giving any cost of living allowance to teachers. Instead, an honorarium, which was started during the time of then Talisay city mayor and now Cebu first district Rep. Eduardo Gullas.

"There is no such thing as Cola here. We are only giving them honorarium," Bacaltos said, adding that if the city would want to increase the honorarium of the teachers, sources of funds should be further studied."

The honorarium of teachers was taken from the General Fund amounting to P2.5 million and not from the Special Education Fund, Bacaltos said.

"Let the committee on education study first the proposal of councilor Bucao. After that, we will decide if we will raise the honorarium of the teachers," Bacaltos said.