Catholic schools seek SAP for employees

MANILA, Philippines-- An organization of Catholic schools is appealing to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian to include its members’ employees among the beneficiaries of the government’s social amelioration program (SAP) since they also suffered losses as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

“As of writing this letter, we are experiencing a downtrend in enrollment brought about by this pandemic. Our meager savings are fast depleting and in no time could no longer sustain the needs of our personnel,” the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) said in a statement yesterday.

The CEAP-National Capital Region (NCR) trustees and committee chairs wrote the letter to ask Gatchalian – who chairs the Senate committee on basic education, arts and culture – to include their personnel as beneficiaries of the second tranche of the SAP.

The CEAP stressed that its members’ earnings depend on the tuition and other fees paid by students. This means that the pandemic drastically affected the schools’ operations, particularly now that the government is pushing for online classes while there is no vaccine available against COVID-19, the group said.

The letter to Gatchalian was signed by Fr. Nolan Que, CEAP-NCR chairman, and 15 other officials of the group.