DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 01 Oct) – The local government cannot grant the demand of the local chapter of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) for an additional subsidy of P4,500 for public school workers, City Mayor Sara Duterte said Monday.
But Duterte told ACT to submit another proposal that is “reasonable, acceptable, and doable.”
“To allot P34,000 per year per DepEd employee is impossible for the City Government of Davao,” she said.
ACT-Davao City proposed to the mayor for an additional P2,000 monthly financial subsidy and P2,500 quarterly rice subsidy from the city government for 11,959 teaching and nonteaching personnel in the city’s public schools to help them cope with the rising prices of basic commodities.
ACT-Davao City president Reynaldo Pardillo told MindaNews that the group will submit another proposal to Duterte that the city government may find feasible.
He added they plan to submit it during Duterte’s State of City Address at the City Council on Tuesday.
“We are still hopeful that our request will be granted,” he said.
Duterte said the city government has been helpful to the workers of other government agencies but added granting the group’s proposal will cost the city P406.6 million annually.
She said they are “willing to find a way to assist public educators and address this concern.”
“There is no basis in law for the local government unit to provide P406 Million to DepEd (Department of Education) employees. Subsidies to teachers and non-teaching staff of DepEd are also not allowed for Special Education Fund use,” she said.
In a separate statement, the group said the allowance can be allotted from the city’s General Fund like what is being done by Quezon City and 21 other cities in the country that provide monthly allowance, rice and medical subsidy, and funding of annual leadership training seminars to public school workers.
ACT-Davao City said it hopes to hold another dialogue with the city government to discuss doable means to help the teachers.
The group also demanded a public apology from the police and military after some of them were barred from attending the flag raising ceremony at the City Hall on Monday where they planned to talk with the mayor for the release of the subsidy.
Pardillo said he was confronted by another police officer who showed pictures of him and three other teachers and were told they were banned from attending the ceremony. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
