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.
Where’s the beef?
If only for having approved through a public hearing its
“P28.6-million operating budget for fiscal year 2006” (BM, Feb.
02), the “re-invented” Naga City School Board (NCSB) headed by
Mayor Jesse M. Robredo deserved kudos.
Not only would the budget “sustain gains of the public sector in
the city and meet the challenge of hosting the 2006 Palarong Bicol
this coming March”, it’s approval through public consultation
could likewise well highlight the city leadership’s much-vaunted
commitment to “transparency” and “good governance”. Moreover, the
“increased funding allocations” intended for, among other things,
“staff development” aimed at improving the Naga public school
teachers’ (why not include school heads?) “proficiency” in
“writing and grammar”, would attest to the NCSB’s seriousness in
addressing the sorry state of our public education.
Personally, I have no problem with the P29-million budget. It
could be even much bigger, provided it ends up getting spent
judiciously. Only it made me wonder why, as far as the reported
outlay is concerned, nothing was ever stated about or allotted for
the teachers’ P350/month COLA, which has remained unpaid for more
than a year now. What got indicated therein was the entitlement
“for two quarters of around 1,200 public school teachers in the
city”, which, in most likelihood, covers only the P400 monthly
COLA being funded through “internal revenue allotments”.
Apart from the “P1.1 million surplus registered in 2005, as well
as P2.5 million in fresh money certified by City Treasurer Rodrigo
Belleza”, this city’s school board could have generated a “saving”
out of the unreleased COLA of more or less P5 million last year.
Please do calculate: P350 per teacher x 1,200 teachers x 12 months
(never mind the pre-signed yet unpaid vouchers for the last 3
quarters of 2004), and this will amount to P5.04 million.
It would do well to recall what Mr. Wilfredo B. Prilles, NCSB
project coordinator, wrote in reply to my query last year: “The
COLA is neither missing nor misspent, as Collao alleges and
adverts to. The funds, both coming from the Special Education Fund
(SEF) collected locally and internal revenue allotments released
by the national government, are intact and available (highlights
supplied) for release — once the proposed reform of the COLA
scheme is finalized and approved” (BM, June 16, 2005).
If the funds were indeed “intact and available” and since the SEF-funded
COLA weren’t released last year, then these could have been
considered part of the “surplus registered in 2005” and thus
carried over to this year’s budget. Unless the funds for this
purpose have been, God forbid, “missing or misspent”?
When will this long over-due P5-million entitlement be finally
released to and received by the public school teachers in this
“happy city”?
Somehow, there’s got to be answers (not deafening silence) over
such lingering questions or concerns that involve public interest.
After all, what is “transparency” or “good governance” for?
MANUEL A. COLLAO, via e-mail.
