ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro on Wednesday urged the Department of Education to release the remaining P3,000 Service Recognition Incentive of teachers.

She said the amount can be used by the teachers to buy medicines.

“We did an online survey asking teachers whether or not they have received the remaining P3,000 SRI promised by the DepEd last year. It is very alarming that many divisions have yet to release the SRI of teachers especially in times like these that they could have used this amount to buy medicine supplies as thousands experience flu-like symptoms,” Castro said.

DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said the P3,000 incentive had been downloaded to regional offices on January 5, 2022.

“Mula Luzon, Visayas at Mindanao, maraming mga dibisyon pa rin ang hindi pa nakakatanggap ng kanilang P3,000 SRI. Sana naman hindi ito matulad sa ibang pangakong benepisyo sa mga guro na pahirapan at patagalan pa bago makuha,” Castro said.

“This may be a small amount but teachers have been neglected and abandoned by the Duterte administration in terms of support for continuing education amid the pandemic, their salaries compared to the military and police remain very low, benefits are often delayed if not denied. The remaining P3,000 SRI of teachers would go a long way to help our teachers amid this Covid19 surge,” she added.

“In our online survey, only Antipolo, Laguna and Zamboanga Del Norte reported to have received their P3,000 remaining SRI. Other divisions and provinces from NCR and other parts of the country reported that they have yet to receive the remaining P3,000 SRI,” Castro said.