Teachers to get P10K incentive

MANDAUE CITY

Public school teachers in Mandaue City will have something to look forward to in the last quarter of the year and early next year after the city government promised to give each of them a P10,000 cash incentive.

Mayor Luis Gabriel “Luigi” Quisumbing said on Friday that the estimated 2,500 public school teachers would initially receive P5,000 before the year ends while the remaining balance would be released early next year.

“We will likely be able to release something like half this year. And it will be included in the budget proposal for 2019. We would be able to release it in full next year,” Quisumbing said.

The Commission on Audit (COA) has earlier disallowed the release of the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) of the public school teachers after the Special Education Fund (SEF), which has been intended for students, has been reportedly utilized as for the allowances of teachers in 2013.

Vice Mayor Carlo Pontico Fortuna said this (the cash incentive) would help ease the burden of the teachers, who had been greatly affected with the soaring prices of basic commodities.

Fortuna said he would push for the passage of an ordinance at the City Council to make the release of the cash incentives for the teachers permanent.

“We were able to come up with other alternative, labi na karon nga taas ng gasolina taas na ang presyo sa bugas (especially with the increase of prices of gasoline and rice) so I think this is the time that we extend assistance especially to the teachers. We will be giving a cash assistance,” he said.

“What is important is that there will be measure that will be introduced next week to the City Council, which is an ordinance granting cash assistance to the public school teachers in Mandaue,” Fortuna said.

He said that teachers serving at least a year in public schools in Mandaue City would qualify for the assistance.