Is there enough budget to raise teachers’ COLA?

Can Cebu City afford to provide the proposed P4,000 cost of living allowance monthly to its 5,500 teachers?

To look for answers, the City Council has referred the proposed ordinance on COLA allocation to the City Treasurer's Office and City Budget Office for comments.

This was the recommendation of the Committee on Budget and Finance headed by Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera.

Once the ordinance is approved, Pesquera said the city government will be mandated to allot at least P268,280,000 monthly for 5,485 teachers assigned in the city.

She said it is within the mandate of local government units to provide additional cash aid to public school teachers as provided for under the Local Government Code.

She added that such aid is also allowed by the Commission on Audit to be sourced from the coffers of the city government and not from the Special Education Fund (SEF).

“Thus, it is well within the power of the Sanggunian Panlungsod to grant additional allowances to the teachers of this City, provided the finances of the City Government allow it,” the committee report reads.

Last year, COA issued a notice of disallowance to the city government for the P80.5 million COLA and hardship and clothing allowance the previous administration gave to public school teachers in 2015. At the time, teachers in Cebu City each received COLA amounting to P2,000.

The commission found the aid “improper” after it was charged to the SEF, saying it violated the Republic Act 6758 otherwise known as Compensation and Position Classification Act of 1989.

“All allowances except for representation and transportation allowances; clothing and laundry allowances…and such other additional compensation not otherwise specified herein as may be determined by the DBM, shall deemed included in the standardized salary rates herein prescribed,” Section 2 of RA 6758 reads.

Councilor Jose Daluz III, chairman of the committee on social housing and services and author of the proposed measure, said the draft ordinance seeks to match the allowance for teachers to those of city police officers, barangay tanods, and lupons.

“We decided to make it P4,000 because we give P4,000 to the police, P5,000 to tanods and P4,000 to our lupon. At least it's uniform,” he said earlier.

Daluz cited in his proposed measure joint Circular No. 01 of 1998 of the Department of Education, Department of Budget and Management, and Department of Interior and Local Government which sets that additional allowance to public school teachers be sourced from the general fund of the local government units.

“The compensation of the public school teachers in the Philippines even after the increases implemented is still below the poverty level, inadequate to cope with the rising costs to sustain a decent standard of living,” the proposed measure reads.

Odessa O. Leyson/KBQ