CH releases day care teachers' pay

CEBU, Philippines - The salaries of Cebu City day care teachers that were pending for a year have already been released a day after they complained to the office of the Mayor last week for the failure of the Local School Board to process their salaries on time.

City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said that the salary was released Thursday night last week when they read in a newspaper report the teachers’ plight.

“That is not what the Mayor wants. We should pay these teachers because they worked hard for that,” Poblete said.

He explained that the salaries were delayed because of procedural misconception.

“The processing officer was confused about the process. All the while they thought the teachers should be issued a Cash Card first, but actually they can release the salaries through a payroll,” Poblete said.

The teacher’s Cash Cards were only issued recently.

He said the processing officer was not aware of this role since they just took over the job from the Department of Social Welfare and Services.

Thursday last week, Poblete met the local school board, Accounting Office and the City Treasurer’s Office to determine the main reason for the delay.

The Accounting Office and the CTO then immediately processed the salaries and deposited the money to the teachers’ accounts.

Poblete said that the months without pay could have been prevented from accumulating had they been informed earlier.

“Because the problem is simply procedural, we have enough budget for that,” he said.

Poblete said he instructed the local school board to make sure the salaries will be processed and deposited to the teachers’ accounts monthly.

Day-care teachers receive P4,000 to P5,000 honorarium from the city government. The city provides a counterpart amount to make their salary P6,000 a month. The rest represents the counterpart of the Barangay. — (FREEMAN)