MEMBERS OF the Alliance of Concerned Teachers on Tuesday held a rally outside the central office of the Department of Education to reiterate their call for the payment of the benefits of teachers.

The group decried the government’s “neglect of teacher’s welfare” and sought a dialogue with DepEd officials.

It claimed that their written request for a dialogue sent last week was unanswered.

The teachers said they wanted to sit down with education officials after they received an “unclear and non-committal” response from DepEd on the problems they listed, including the non-payment of incentives such as the P300 monthly communication reimbursement for 2020, Service Recognition Incentive of 2020 and Performance-Based Bonus for 2019.

“Hindi naubusan ng pasakit sa guro ang gobyernong ito. Napakasaklap ng nakaraang taon para sa ating mga guro na pumasan ng gastusin sa edukasyon sa kabila ng pandemya at ng iba’t ibang kalamidad, matatapos na ang unang buwan ng bagong taon ngunit binabarat pa rin ng gobyerno ang benepisyo ng ating mga guro,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

The DepEd announced last week that it can only pay up to P6,190 for the SRI 2020 instead of the mandated P10,000.

“The government’s failure to meet its financial obligations to our teacher is already taking a great toll on the economic situation of our mentors. Paano pa sila magtuturo kung wala na silang pambili ng cellphone load, kung mapuputulan na sila ng kuryente at internet, at inaagaw ng distance learning ang budget ng pamilya?” Basilio asked.

He said that to make ends meet, some teachers have applied for loans, hoping that they would finally receive their benefits.

“It’s a grave insult to our teachers to have to continuously beg for something that should be theirs in the first place, no questions asked. Time and again our teachers have gone beyond their call of duty just to be able to provide continuous and quality education to our young learners. All they get in exchange, however, is more debts because the neglectful government would not pay up,” Basilio said.

He added that teachers have yet to receive the salary adjustment for 2021 which should have taken effect this month.