A group on Thursday, Dec. 23, urged the government to grant the benefits of teachers and non-teaching personnel especially those that were severely affected by typhoon Odette (international name: Rai).
In a statement, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines called on the Duterte government to “immediately release” due benefits to education workers as thousands suffer the aftermath of typhoon Odette amid the holiday season.
“The slow and dismal government response to the victims of typhoon Odette brings more gloom to lives of our people at this otherwise joyous time,” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said.
ACT pressed President Duterte to swiftly order the grant of Service Recognition Incentive 2021 (SRI 2021) worth P10,000 to all government workers. The group is also pushing for the release of Performance-based Bonus 2020 (PBB 2020) to employees of the Department of Education (DepEd) --- especially to those in the provinces of Visayas and Mindanao who have been hardly hit by the typhoon.
“Aid is urgently needed and the least President Duterte can do for teachers and education support personnel is to direct the release of benefits that already have fund sources,” Basilio said.
ACT lamented that President Duterte has “yet to issue an administrative order” for the grant of SRI which is a year-end benefit granted to all government employees since 2019 sourced from the savings of each agency.
The group said that the release of DepEd’s PBB for the year 2020 “remains pending” with the AO 25 Task Force who reviews the performance of each government agency.
“Everyday that the government fails to respond to the needs of our people, they suffer from lack of shelter, food and drinking water,” Basilio said.
“It is downright unacceptable that this government is not mobilizing enough to swiftly get aid through to those who need them the most,” he added.
No more funds?
Meanwhile, Basilio slammed Duterte’s earlier pronouncement that there are no more resources to fund calamity aid and the best he can do is to mobilize his office’s budget.
“Practically a third of the country is placed under the state of calamity,” Basilio said. “The situation calls a more innovative and steadfast leadership to rise above this challenge than a cheap heroic streak of purported self-sacrifice,” he added.
To gather donations for the victims of typhoon Odette in the affected regions, ACT also launched its “Tulong-Guro” relief drive.