Parañaque City Mayor Eric Olivarez announced that around 3,900 public school teachers will receive an additional P1,000 in their monthly Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA) from the city government starting January 2023.
Olivarez said the increase will give the teachers a P4,000 monthly COLA from the current P3,000.
He said an additional P46,800,000 fund was allocated in the city’s 2023 budget to cover the increase.
“Education is our priority program, but we cannot deliver quality education if our teachers can’t concentrate on their jobs because they worry about their livelihood, thus this modest increase in their COLA,” according to the mayor who is an educator himself.
“Our public school teachers are our education frontliners, and they deserve to be taken cared of,” Olivarez added.
The mayor said the increase in COLA will come from both the General Fund and the Special Education Fund or SEF in the local government unit’s budget.
Parañaque City has a P11.3 billion budget for 2023.
The city has 46 public school campuses catering to around 110,000 students and each student also receives a P500 monthly allowance from the city government with an annual budget allocation of around P600 million.