House wants DepEd officials to face probe over deductions

Notwithstanding a decision to heed the call of public school teachers to address the alleged arbitrary imposition of salary deductions, officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) should still explain why they should not be called by Congress to explain the reported irregularity.

In House Resolution No. 1342, ACT Teachers Partylist Reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro called for a congressional inquiry into the legality of DepEd Order NO. 38, Series of 2017, which, in effect, reduced the Net Take Home Pay (NTHP) of teachers to amounts below P4,000 for October.

About half of the teaching personnel and other DepEd employes were affected by the DepEd directive that ensured the payment of loans taken by teachers from private lending institutions through mandatory salary deductions.

Tinio and Castro demanded the refund of the alleged “arbitrary deductions” on the salaries of all affected teachers and employes.

Public school teachers have staged protest actions to demand the recall of the DO 38, prompting DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones to address the issue.

Swiftly, Briones issued DO No. 55 that mandates the maintenance of a 14,000 threshold in the NTHP. The new directive practically repealed DO No. 38.

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), a 30,000-strong group welcomed the cancellation of the DepEd Order No. 38, s. 2017 which – according to them – caused the “sudden and unexpected deductions made to salaries of teachers for the month of October” purportedly for amortization of loans from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and other loan agencies.

Briones – in a DepEd Order dated October 26, 2017 – ensured that teachers will receive no less than 14,000 as NTHP as it prioritizes loan deductions due for the GSIS and the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF).

Briones announced that the teachers’ NTHP threshold shall “be safeguarded” following the issuance of DepEd Order No. 55 (DO 55), series 2017, or the “Revised Guidelines on the Implementation of P4,000 Net Take Home Pay for the Department of Education Personnel.”

But in the House, Castro said: “Despite the issuance of DO No. 55, an investigation must ensue to hold the DepEd’s leadership accountable for its arbitrary issuance of DO No. 38.”

She added: “Damage has already been done to thousands of the department’s personnel and their families.”

Castro stressed that Briones “placed the lives of its personnel at stake” by forcing them “to hunger with only a few hundred pesos at their disposal for several days.”