DAVAO CITY , Philippines – Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, on Monday, said she could not grant the P4500 subsidy being asked by public school teachers here, saying there is no existing law that would warrant such request.
“There is no basis in law for the Local Government Unit to provide P406 Million to DepEd employees. Subsidies to teachers and non-teaching staff of DepEd are also not allowed for Special Education Fund use,” she said.
“To allot P34,000 per year per DepEd employee is impossible for the City Government of Davao,” the local chief executive added.
On Monday, some 100 public school teachers under the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Davao City Chapter here attended the Monday’s flag raising ceremony to lobby and hold a dialogue with Mayor Sara Duterte.
But they were frustrated over the police and military’s refusal to allow them from attending the Davao City Hall flag ceremony and lobbying for the increase of local allowances.
Reynaldo Pardillo, president of ACT-Davao City, said they were barred and confronted by a policeman, questioning their plan to attend the ceremony. The policeman told Pardillo’s group that they were “banned from entering the vicinity as ordered by their heads”.
ACT-Davao has been asking the local government of Davao to pay at least P406 Million yearly as subsidy to 11,959 teaching and non-teaching personnel of the Department of Education.
The group’s demand also covers P2000 monthly financial subsidy and a P2500 quarterly rice subsidy.
Duterte-Carpio suggested that ACT Davao should” rethink their position and come up with something reasonable, acceptable, and doable for us.”
” The City Government of Davao has always been helpful to employees of other government offices, including DepEd, and it is always willing to find a way to assist public educators and address this concern,” she added.
But Pardillo said that their proposal is feasible, adding that the funds can be charged to the City’s General Fund.
“While Mayor Duterte is correct that the LGU is not allowed now to use the Special Education Fund for subsidies, the allowance can certainly be charged to the city’s General Fund like in the case of Quezon City and 21 other cities in the country that give local allowances to their respective DepEd personnel in the form of monthly allowance, rice and medical subsidy and funding of annual leadership training seminars,” he said.
He added, “While we will be submitting another proposal to the city government, we hope that the local government unit can have a dialogue with us to discuss on what can be “doable” for the city. It is unfortunate that such a dialogue where both parties work for solutions is marred by the police’s disrespect and rough treatment of our fellow officers and teachers.”(davaotoday.com)
