By Merlina Hernando-Malipot Amid controversies hounding teachers’ debts to various lending institutions, a group of teachers maintained that low salaries “force” them indebtedness. (Photo courtesy of Teachers' Dignity Coalition (TDC) / MANILA BULLETIN) “Teachers avail salary loans to make ends meet,” said Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) National Chairperson Benjo Basas. He noted that Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones earlier accused teachers of borrowing money to “support lifestyle luxuries.” Basas noted that a study revealed that the top loan allocation of public school teachers goes to house construction or repair. “The most important priorities include education of their children, business or investment, food, and emergency expenses,” he added. Not happy Public school teachers, Basas noted, are “not happy” with their economic status. “It is a fact that our meager salaries cannot sustain the financial requirement of our families, especially with the current state of inflation,” he added. “Most of our teachers rely on loan agencies, either private or government, to suffice their financial needs,” Basas said. He also cited a wordplay from “loan dito, loan doon,” which “has already been used to call their repetitive, seemingly helpless condition” tagged as “Taga-London.” Basas lamented that “even some lending institutions have now turned their backs on teachers” after DepEd issued the Department Order No. 5 s. 2018 or the Automatic Payroll Deduction System was implemented this year. “This is due to the fact that some private lending institutions placed in the bottom order of preference started to gradually exit the lending market for teachers,” he said. TDC also sent a letter to Briones in August requesting for a meeting to seek clarifications on the implementation of the D.O. 5 S. 2018 or the APDS. TDC reiterated the “possible consequence of teachers going back to illegal lending options to seek financial remedy.” “We are wary that such may leave our teachers at a disadvantaged situation and force them to resort to informal lenders such 5-6 or Sangla-ATM schemes that charge exorbitant interest rates and fees,” Basas said.” Indebtedness of poor teachers to these loan sharks would eventually result to administrative or even criminal charges,” he added. Basas argued that the APDS “imposes an order of preference which applies to old and existing obligations” in the following order: GSIS, non-stocks savings and loans associations (NSSLAs) and mutual benefits associations, provident funds, insurance companies, and rural and thrift banks. Teachers cry foul about GSIS being in the topmost priority, despite the GSIS Financial Assistance Loan (GFAL) which aims to buy out teachers’ loans on other private lending institutions. According to the study, teachers didn’t see GFAL as a way out of indebtedness since it will only lengthen it up to 6 years. In the study, teachers have listed a number of disadvantages of availing loans from GSIS including the delayed posting of payments and having outdated databases among others. On the other hand, lack of service charge and low-interest rates are listed on the advantages list. Basas noted that further, “results revealed that teachers are more inclined to avail salary loans in private lending institutions because of accessibility and convenience.” “The issues with teachers’ loans are a reflection of teachers’ economic status, it is our long-standing appeal to the government to provide a just compensation to our teachers,” Basas said. “For almost a decade now, we have been lobbying for the enactment of the P10, 000 across the board increase in salaries of teachers and education personnel,” he added. Basas noted that while the “entry-level positions in our counterparts in uniformed service have been doubled, ours remained one of the lowest in the civil service.” He added that the government facilities like the GSIS provide “very limited loan options to our teachers and in higher interest rate, in addition to their history of employing unjust policies at the expense of their members.” Improving teachers' socio-economic status Despite all these complaints, DepEd assured its commitment to “expand the welfare and professional growth of its teaching and non-teaching personnel.” In an earlier statement, DepEd noted that it is eyeing career advancement for educators that is competency-based. DepEd’s Human Resource Development Division of the Bureau of Human Resource and Organizational Development (BHROD-HRDD) have started conducting a review of the career path, as well as recruitment promotion, and reclassification systems, for teaching positions. “The review is expected to result in the issuance of updated policies on hiring and promotion of teachers,” DepEd said. The agency said that it “also looking into submitting a proposal on the improved career path of teachers” to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). In the proposed career advancement, DepEd noted that “promotions will no longer be dictated by occurrence of natural vacancy in higher positions but upon teachers' attainment of set competencies.” Teachers will have a career path from Teacher I to Teacher VII (Salary Grade 11 to Salary Grade 17) and Master Teacher 1 to Master Teacher IV (Salary Grade 18 to Salary Grade 22). If this pushes through, DepEd noted that “teachers will no longer have to shift to the school administration career line for career growth.” The alignment of the promotion system with the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST), DepEd added, will also “foster professional advancement among teachers as they will attain higher competencies.”