From the brothers with love

Some three decades ago, one had the privilege of serving Mandaue City then under the administration of Mayor Demetrio “Boy” M. Cortes. With a lot of LGU affairs then – until now despite the Local Government Code – subject to final “blessings” from “imperial Manila”, follow-ups were unavoidable. Most LGU officials were often saddled with such tedious and unglamorous task.

Aside from Malacañang, or the DILG in Quezon City, or the Dept. of Finance, or Budget and Management, or COA, etc., because public teachers had various complaints, the DECS then was often an “O.B.” destination. The complaints pertained to long delayed salary for new teachers, unexplained payroll deduction, say, for insurance not applied for, over-deductions on salary loans, etc. not being acted upon by the IBM section of DECS.

Seldom then would one follow-up produce positive results, with the SOP reply of being “very busy” and just let the affected teachers be more patient. The latter could hardly contain their exasperation and, yes, anger.

Thus, the Cebu public teachers and non-teaching staff were overjoyed when Rep. Jose “Dodong” R. Gullas took up the cudgels by initially filing House Bill 2542. Its banner purpose was to decentralize the payroll service by creating regional payroll service units (RPSU) to process, print, and distribute their salary checks.

Rep. Dodong Gullas did an excellent job on his pet bill that passed the House. But despite his tireless liaison for a counterpart Senate bill, lobbyists who had multi-millions at stake for the retention of the centralized payroll making and distribution, had “stronger sway”.

But even when Dodong’s House bill didn’t become a law, he succeeded in convincing the then DECS secretary for an administrative order to regionalize the payroll system. Initial printing and distribution was on June 22, 2004 to the first 30 Cebu recipients.

Since then the public teachers so benefited have been very grateful to Rep. Dodong Gullas for his exemplary service. A lawmaker or a public official need not dabble in numerous endeavors to serve. One or a few deeds beneficial to his constituents may suffice when done from the heart.

And that’s not the end of the story for the mentors in the noblest profession… Elder brother Rep. Eddie R. Gullas, has taken the slack for brother Dodong by re-filing a similar bill – House Bill No. 4981 – in order that Dodong’s original bill, though already enjoyed by the public school teachers by administrative fiat, will become a law. When fully legislated as a statute, the decentralization of the payroll system is more effective and permanent than just a department mandate, and nationally institutionalized.

Thus, any changing of the guards at DepEd and any concomitant change of policy at its helm, will not affect the law as to make the payroll regionalization invulnerable and imperturbable to the whims of monetary stakeholders and private commercial lobbyists.

Congressman “Eddiegul” and his young brod Dodong have long been aware of the hassle, the very long delay, the unnecessary expense of follow-ups in Manila, the chances of corruption under the centralized payroll system, ad infinitum, ad nauseam drawbacks then obtaining, are motivations enough for their labor of love.

This is not to flatter the service-oriented brothers, but just to stress that their lifetime experience as hands-on educators have made them aware of the problems of public school teachers. But knowing such concerns would have been fruitless still, if they haven’t been honed since childhood from benevolent parents who had believed in and adhered to love as the law of life.

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