Floro L. Mercene By Floro Mercene   Before Congress adjourned last March, Ako Bicol party-list lawmaker Rodel Batocabe delivered a privilege speech, saying public school teachers are on the brink of bankruptcy and drowning in debt after being “seduced by a plethora of credit and lending institutions.” While teachers before were being chided for peddling their wares in schools hawking bras, underwear, clothing apparels, processed food, etc., Batocabe was the first to reveal that teachers have become targets and willing victims of huge financial institutions. “This defeated one of the major objectives of Republic Act No. 4670, the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers. Section 21 specifically provides for the protection of public school teachers’ salaries by prohibiting deductions in pay-slips, unless authorized by law,” Batocabe said. Public school teachers have long been receiving advance salaries from rural and thrift banks. The Department of Education (DepEd), during the Noynoy Aquino administration, issued a memorandum expanding the entry of private lending institutions (PLIs) other than those cited by the Magna Carta, paving the way for the 214 accredited PLIs. Through policy loopholes, this enabled the participation of commercial banks via their conduits, thrift and rural banks. With every centavo lent to teachers, the banks are assured of repayment, so commercial banks flooded the market with unlimited funds, enticing teachers to borrow beyond their capacity to pay. Batocabe said seven of the 20 largest commercial and universal banks in the country are deeply imbedded in the salary deduction schemes of the DepEd, resulting in a P300-billion debt by teachers. The P177 billion are in the form of loans owed to PLIs, of which P112 billion are loans granted by entities owned and controlled by universal banks through their rural or thrift bank subsidiaries. He said City Savings Bank, owned by Union Bank, extended loans to 471,555 teacher-borrowers for P58 billion; Eastwest Rural Bank of Eastwest Bank with 142,019 loans granted in the amount of P27 billion; and One Network Rural Bank with 93,834 loans granted in the amount of P5 billion. Batocabe vowed to file a resolution mandating DepEd to cease and desist from entering into agreement and accrediting rural and thrift banks.