The Department of Education (DepEd) maintained that the provision of teachers’ benefits in public schools such as their allowances and compensation remained “timely” despite the restrictions brought about by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Education Secretary Leonor Briones, in a public briefing on June 15, said that DepEd has been exerting efforts to ensure that the compensation and allowances of teachers are given to them on time.

“As far as we are concerned, in those five months that we did not have classes, teachers regularly received their benefits during those five months,” Briones said in a mix of English and Filipino.

“Walang utang ang Department of Education sa benefits ng mga teachers dahil alam namin na mahalagang-mahalaga at kailangang-kailangan iyan, bukas kung sarado ang eskuwelahan, iyong benefits ng teachers pati uniform allowance inaayos na namin (The Department of Education has no debt for teachers' benefits because we know that it is very important and very necessary, even if schools were open or closed, we took care of their benefits as well as uniform allowance),” Briones said.

DepEd has allowed the processing and release of Clothing Allowance for its personnel on April 5, 2021. The clothing allowance for DepEd personnel has a total budget of P5.56 billion.

Briones approved the “flexibility and leniency” on the clothing allowance so teachers can use this for personal needs or teaching needs.

“Iyong uniform allowance gusto kong i-clarify hindi kami magbibigay ng uniform, ang ibibigay namin ay cash din at pera din ang ibibigay namin sa teacher, nasa teacher iyan kung bibili siya ng bagong uniform o kuntento na siya, happy na siya sa dati niyang uniform pero ang pera ibibigay namin sa kaniya (In the uniform allowance, I want to clarify that we will not give them uniform, we will give the cash and we will also give money to the teacher, so it is up to the teacher if they will buy new uniforms or if they are satisfied or happy with the old uniforms, we will still give them the money),” Briones said.

Moreover, Briones stressed the DepEd has been exerting its best efforts to ensure that the benefits of teachers are released on time.

“Lahat ng entitlements ng ating mga teachers, binibigay natin at saka timely ang pagbigay ng mga allowances at saka compensation na ito sa ating mga teachers (All the entitlements of our teachers, we gave it to them and the provision of allowances were also timely as well as the compensation of our teachers),” Briones said.

“So wala tayong pagkukulang dito, kagaya sa iba ding mga nagsisilbi dahil maliban sa teachers marami din ang nagsisilbi sa taong-bayan (So we have no shortcomings here, like other people who serve - because apart from teachers, there are also many who serve the people),” she added.