Letters to the Editor
Letters to the
editor are welcome on this page. Only those with complete name,
signature, contact number and return address for verification
shall be considered for publication, subject to editing and space
limitation when necessary - Editor-in-Chief.
Cost of waiting allowance
GOOD NEWS: “Finally, please be informed that the P400 monthly cost
of living allowance for public school teachers in Naga for the
first two quarters of 2005 will be released by next week, if not
within the week” (Wilfredo B. Prilles, Jr.,“Letters to the
Editor”, Bicol Mail, July 7, 2005)
GOOD NEWS?: Only the COLA for the first quarter had been received
by the public school teachers last week (July 14) even as they
were made to sign for two (2) payrolls and despite “official”
assurance for a two-quarter release.
QUESTIONS: When will the next COLA release(s) be? Will the
teachers have to wait for another week, month or year? Will the
pre-signed and unreleased 2nd quarter COLA payroll be shelved
somewhere or placed under the NACITEA secretary’s “safekeeping”,
as allegedly in the case of yet unpaid 3-quarter vouchers
corresponding to the “P350 monthly additional allowance sourced
out of the General Fund” for 2004?
The suggestion made by a “school level representative” that these
unpaid payrolls “be returned to their respective schools to
finally dispel allegations of improprieties involving them” sounds
to be in order. In the first place, where is “propriety” in having
the teachers sign payrolls only to keep said vouchers un-acted
upon either due to “lack of funds” or some “proposed reform of the
COLA scheme” which “do(es) away with the across-the-board COLA and
replace it with a scheme that rewards good teacher performance”?
And to think that the “re-invented Naga City School Board” has
been cooking such a scheme up “since 2002” yet!
Talking about “good performance”, there must be other aspects
wherein teachers could be made to best perform on their job than
making the payment of their measly cost of living allowance of
P350 monthly dependent upon the “results of the national
achievement tests”. First, pay them regularly - and fairly so (not
P3,000 DepEd bonus for school bigwigs and only P1,000 for poor
mentors). Second, raise the teachers’ salaries into some human
level possible. Third, improve their work environment, provide
adequate classroom facilities and in-service training. And above
all, let the funds for education, no matter how meager they may
be, be spent wisely and judiciously. And so forth.
(If still the teachers’ cost of living allowance has to be equated
with “performance,” we may as well rename it as something like
“cost of performance (or non-performance) allowance” or “cost of
waiting allowance”. And, make some people happy?)
In the previous issue of Bicol Mail, we wrote: “But the bottom
line is: first, let our government be finally rid itself of
ineptness and corruption and our education structure be manned and
administered by well-trained, competent, dedicated, morally
upright and rightly compensated educators. The rest will follow.
Or so we hope.”
Now, I’m tempted to take that “hope” back and say: “Or so we
pray.” For, at the rate things are being run (“like hell”) by some
seemingly incorrigible bums and crooks in high and low places,
only miracles, it seems, can keep our “beloved” country from going
– if it hasn’t gone yet – to the dogs (with apologies to dogs).
MANUEL A. COLLAO, via e-mail
