DepEd restores net take home pay of teachers
The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday guaranteed the restoration of P4,000 net take home pay (NTHP) of all affected teachers and personnel starting October 30.
In a statement, DepEd assured all public school teachers and other personnel of the Department that their NTHP will now be restored to the mandated threshold.
“Those who received less than the said threshold for the month
of October due to deductions for the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) will receive the remainder on Monday, October 30, through their Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards,” DepEd said as per the advice of Undersecretary for Finance Victoria Catibog.
DepEd said that it “prioritized the reinstatement” of the NTHP as part of its commitment to ensure that teachers and personnel will receive no less than P4,000 for their NTHP as mandated by DepEd Order No. 55, s. 2017 titled “Revised Guidelines on the Implementation of P4,000 Net Take Home Pay for the Department of Education Personnel” and signed by Education Secretary Leonor Briones.
The DepEd said that the Order further states that contributions or obligations of premiums and loans to the GSIS and HDMF shall be given priority in deductions from salaries of employees pursuant to Section 47 of the General Provisions of Republic Act (RA) No. 10924, or the “General Appropriations Act of 2017.” The same primacy shall be accorded to payments for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
The net pay may increase or decrease, depending on the GSIS and HDMF deductions, but DepEd “assures teachers and personnel that their net pay will not go lower than 14,000.”
DepEd, however, reminded concerned public school teachers and other personnel “to personally settle dislodged payments for their loans from Private Lending Institutions (PLIs) over the counter.”
“In view of all these, DepEd is continuously identifying measures to protect its employees and their families from financial and legal implications of non-payment of debts,” the Department said.
Earlier, DepEd was heavily criticized by teachers groups Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) and Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) for allowing loan deductions which resulted in meager take home pays. A House probe was also proposed by solon-teachers to hold the concerned DepEd officials liable for the affected teachers and personnel.
Meanwhile, over 500 teachers now face possible sanctions from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) due to loan-related complaints from large lending institutions.
The PRC said its legal department has already referred these 533 pending cases, which it received from 2014 to 2017, to the Board of Professional Teachers (BPT) for action.
Most of these cases were filed by the following seven large lending institutions: Tarlac Public School Teachers; Progressive Rural Bank; Hovono Lending Corp.; Peso Lite; Sterling Bank; Bernadette Lending; and Bridge Auxiliary.
Lawyer Jose Bernabe Pauig, hearing officer in the PRC Legal and Investigation Division, said based from the affidavit or petition submitted by the parties involved, the BPT may either dismiss the cases or opt to sanction its respondents, which in this case are the teachers.
“The Board may impose a mere reprimand to the teachers in the form of a mere warning. It may also opt to suspend the (professional) license of the teacher for a certain period or revoke it,” Pauig told the Manila Bulletin.
Pauig explained that professionals with revoked licenses would have to wait for at least two years before they could apply for the reinstatement of their professional license.
He, however, stressed PRC has no mandate to “pressure” the teachers to pay their loans from their creditors.
“This is not part of the mandate of PRC,” Pauig said.
Instead, he said PRC and the BPT will only act on the loan-related cases in relation to its possible violation of the code of ethics for teachers.
Pauig made the clarification in response to the allegation of ACT that PRC has favored Private Lending Institutions (PLI) in a conciliation and mediation meeting it held the previous week.
Last Friday, 11 teachers from Central Luzon were accompanied by ACT Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinioto PRC’s main office in Manila for their conciliation and mediation meeting with Bernadette Lending.
During the meeting, Pauig said PRC merely facilitated the talks between the two parties. The dialogue ended with the respondents opting to terminate the conciliation and mediation process and elevating their case to the BPT.
“Until the Board of Professional Teachers decides on their case, there will be no sanctions against them,” Pauig said. (With a report from Samuel Medenilla)