It’s going to be a merry Christmas for public school teachers in Cebu as Mayor Edgardo Labella decided to suspend the payment of the disallowance of teachers. The teachers will receive the full financial assistance of P10,000 this year. CDN FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Good news to all public school teachers in Cebu City!
It’s going to be a merry Christmas indeed for Cebu City’s public school teachers because they will receive the full amount of P10,000 as financial assistance before 2019 ends.
This happened after Mayor Edgar Labella decided to suspend the payment of the disallowance of the teachers, which was ordered by the Commission on Audit (COA) in 2016.
In 2017, the COA said that public school teachers do not need the Cost of Living Allowance (Cola), which was given by the city government to the teachers in 2015 and 2016 because Cola is already incorporated in their salaries.
This meant that all teachers, who received Cola in 2015 and 2016, need to return P20,000 each back to the government.
It was also in 2017 when the Cebu City Council passed an ordinance to provide annual financial assistance to the teachers.
In the same year, the administration of former mayor Tomas Osmeña arranged that the Cola be deducted from the annual financial assistance of P10,000, which the city gives to the teachers.
Under this arrangement, P5,000 is taken out from the P10,000 financial assistance for each teacher within a span of four years.
This year, 2019, the last year of the payment, Labella decided to suspend the last payment of P5,000 per teacher in order to provide the teachers a “breather” and enjoy the full amount of their financial assistance.
In a phone interview, Raddy Diola, the representative of the mayor in the local school board, confirmed the news and said that there will be no P5, 000 deduction in the financial assistance that each teacher will receive this year.
“This is good news because the teachers really need the financial assistance. They spend money for their classrooms, and sometimes even for their students. They deserve to enjoy the financial assistance,” said Diola.
Diola said the mayor will have the prerogative to continue the payment of the disallowance next year.
Diola noted that the disallowance still needs to be paid.
In the spirit of the holiday season, Diola said this is something to worry about for another day.
As of now, Diola said all teachers can enjoy their full financial assistance of P10,000 in time for Christmas 2019. / celr