Labella: Source teachers’ COLA from general fund

CEBU, Philippines – Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella has announced that there is a possibility for the cost of living allowance (COLA) for city teachers to be brought back by next year.

The Commission on Audit (COA) earlier disallowed the giving of such allowance since it was to be sourced from the special education fund. He added that the disallowance is still pending appeal and is therefore not yet final.

Labella said that instead of sourcing it from the SEF, it will be sourced from the general fund this time.

“We think there will be no legal impediment to source it from the general funds. And kung ako lang masunod, we will give it back but we will not source it from the special education fund,” said Labella.

Labella had declared that Cebu City’s 7,000 public teachers will receive their P10,000 Christmas bonus in full amount without the deduction of the disallowance.

“I would like to make it categorized that in the spirit of the Christmas season and for humanitarian consideration, the most underpaid and overworked among government workers are our teachers, gamay ra ni nga butang, total ang disallowance dili paman final duna pa may pending appeal, so it is still premature to deduct P5,000 from the P10,000. P5,000 is P5,000, dako na kaayo na matabang sa ilang pagsaulog sa Pasko,” said Labella.

Labella plans to increase the allotted monthly COLA from 1,200 to 1,500 per month for the whole 10 months of classes.

The teachers from the mountain barangays will be receiving higher COLA of P1,500 per month due to the higher living and transportation expenses.

In 2016, COA disallowed the giving of COLA to public school teachers by City of Cebu for the months of January to December 2015 which would sum up to P80.2 million.

By 2017, the COLA was stopped by COA stating that the giving of COLA is deemed unauthorized and unnecessary since the needed allowance is already integrated in the basic salary.

The teachers who had received their COLA for the year 2015 and 2016 have to each return the disallowed P20,000 through a yearly payment plan, in which P5,000 is to be deducted from their salary every year.

At least 8,000 public school teachers received the COLA in 2015. /JMD (FREEMAN)