“Short-changing” our teachers, again!

By RONALD O. REYES
December 21, 2010

OVERHEARD: Radio Announcer 1: What’s the new theme song for teachers this Christmas season? Radio Announcer 2: “Ang Pasko ay suma-bit!” (Christmas got suspended!)

Funny or not, the recent development hounding the teachers in the country is a stark manifestation of how the government is taking our so-called “heroes” for granted.

Not only stalling the releases of their much-anticipated Productivity Enhancement Incentive (PEI), the government is also lying on its teeth when they announced into the public, as being reported in national media, that said PEI had been “readied” in advance so as to “make it up” with the teachers when it also made a “delay” in the distribution of the same type of remuneration in the past.

A delayed release of PEI also means “denying” teachers an appreciation or even a gratitude of their efforts to nation building. It seemed to this writer that teachers are only “attractive” to the national government when there is an election (and government short-changed them during this period, too).

Teaching profession has been “stereotyped” as low-profile, less-compensating, and socially unappealing career in this country. The news on delayed releases of their PEI worsen their already badly-cropped image.

Also, it seemed to me that the national government has been into its “usual crime” of demeaning the teachers, reducing them into beggars and potential victims from “loan sharks”, and worst, stepping into their rights for equal welfare and protection among other state workers.

In Tacloban city alone, teachers would “salivate” when they would hear that its local administration had reportedly distributed rice allowances and some Twenty-five thousand pesos (P25,000) as its bonus allowances to its many employees. And I don’t want to mention how much money the personnel and officials from other big cities and our government-owned and controlled companies (GOCCs) were receiving last week during their annual Christmas parties as I don’t want to completely “break” the hearts of our teachers this season. Likwise, the “pork barrel” and the incentives received by our politicians.

I am always thinking that our government is “short-changing” the teachers because they are anxious or even feel bad of the big amount they owed to them. With around 556,971 reported number of teachers both from elementary and secondary plus their school heads, the government must have a difficult time on how to deal with them “financially”, as PEI would eventually caused the government coffer a whopping P5.57 billion. The same story on how the government resorted to “installment basis” in the increase of teachers’ salaries.

And if such is the case, then the government must do the same thing to all government agencies, or might as well stop this costly annual “bonus habit” of ours.

The issue is not whether the teachers from Luzon (and how I wish they should be the last considering their proximity to national offices) who got the first “share” of this year’s PEI compared to those from Visayas or Mindanao (here we go again with our Philippines-is-Manila Region-Syndrome).

The issue is always about why the government is prone of lying and financially limping our hardworking teachers when we all know that they don’t deserve that kind of treatment.

Over DYDW-Radyo Diwa station in Tacloban city, two radio announcers raised the arguments on why the distribution of P10,000 PEI is being delayed: First, so some people in “DepEd” hierarchy would allegedly earn interest from its depository bank; Second, profiteers and loan sharks (I personally knew one in the regional office, too) allegedly operating in various departments of DepEd throughout the country would find time to rake their “interest” from the PEI proceeds of their loan borrowers.

So this is how our teachers are being treated in this country. Yet, we seldom see or hear teachers marching on the streets, protesting and demanding for their rights.

Our teachers are always like this. No wonder, many people and agencies are prone of abusing them.  (Comments @ naldronaldreyes@yahoo.com)

About the writer:
Ronald O. Reyes is a freelance journalist based in Tacloban City.