Teachers ask for additional P1,000

CEBU, Philippines - The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) are requesting the Cebu City government to provide P1,000 monthly allowance to each of their 2,000 members who are assigned at various public schools in the city.

ACT officials headed by their acting president Tony Cardoza, trooped to the office of Councilor Rodrigo “Bebot” Abellanosa yesterday morning hoping that the latter, as vice chairman of the Committee on Education, could help them.

Although Abellanosa was not in his office yesterday, he was able to talk to the ACT officials and assured them that he will bring up their concern to the CityCouncil during their regular session on May 9 since there will be no session next week.

Cardoza said their request will be in anticipation of the May 1 Labor Day celebration.

He said the government should attend to their needs because public school teachers form a very big chunk of the government workforce.

“We do a lot of work above our call of duty,” Cardoza said.

He added that the teachers were the ones tasked to conduct the census and assist the Commission on Elections (Comelec) during the elections although their principal duty is to teach in schools.

“We need money to spend for instructional materials and internet research for updates,” ACT officer Dexter Flores said.

Antonia Lim, ACT president-elect for Central Visayas, said they are waiting for the P1,000 Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) that was promised by the Local School Board.

According to ACT Union Vice President Bernabe Sabejon, the payroll makers who are members of their group told him that there seems to be complications which may indefinitely delay the release of their COLA.

“This is why we will be exploring other sources to augment the financial needs of our public school teachers which will, in the final analysis, benefit our most important stakeholders, our children and students,” Lim said.

The usual procedure when the City Council receives requests involving financial matters, this will be referred to the Committee on Budget and Finance for study and evaluation.

— (FREEMAN)