MAKABAYAN lawmakers have filed a resolution directing the House Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation and Committee on Basic Education and Culture to investigate, in aid of legislation, the alleged failure of the Department of Education to timely remit the benefit contributions of its employees every year.

ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, Gabriela Women’s Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel filed House Resolution 1530 amid report from Commission on Audit revealing that the DepEd have millions to billions of unremitted benefit contributions.

They cited in the resolution COA report stressing that from 2016 to 2022, the DepEd have billions of unremitted contributions to Government Service Insurance System, Pag-ibig Fund and Philhealth.

“The COA noted the Management’s comments regarding the actions taken of the Deped or the actions that it will do to pay the unremitted balances due to them,” the resolution noted.

The lawmakers stressed in their resolution that teachers, as well as other government employees are not only hounded by the late remittance of their benefit contributions but they also suffer from the late posting of their loan payments and usurious interest and penalties imposed by the GSIS.

The usurious interest and penalties imposed by the GSIS to the loans of its members eating up most, if not the entirety, of the retirement benefits of the retirees is a common issue confronted by many public school teachers and other government employees.