More Money For Education, GMA Says

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 07 Jan) Philippine leader Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Saturday ordered the release of some P500 million for the government’s pro-poor education program.

Mrs. Arroyo directed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release the fund to the Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday.

The money will come from the P35-billion that she earlier announced to finance health, education, housing, food, and public works as part of her economic program for the first quarter of 2006.

She said the additional fund for DepEd would ensure the realization of her government’s policy on education.

The President said the government’s priority in education is to close the "school building-classroom" gap in the elementary level as she noted there are more than enough private high schools in the country that could take in excess public school students through the issuance of the so-called "vouchers."

"The number one priority in education is closing the school building gap, the classroom gap, particularly in the grade school, elementary level. For the high school, there are many private high schools that don’t have enough students anymore and we don’t want them to close down."

"Our DepEd money will go to building grade school classrooms and giving out high school vouchers, so that the students can enroll in either a private high school or in another school," Mrs. Arroyo said.

While the fund will help many poor students in the country, thousands of teachers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) were suffering from their long delayed salaries.

Aside from the salaries, insurance premiums collected from the teachers and civil workers in the ARMM also were not remitted to the Government Service Insurance System. The missing salaries and insurance premiums were estimated at more than P1 billion.

The teachers complained they have not received their backwages for years.

And current ARMM officials, they said, cannot do anything to pay them their missing salaries and blamed previous administration.

The teachers urged the government to look into their problems and for the National Bureau of Investigation and the Ombudsman to file criminal charges and jail those responsible for the missing funds.

Many teachers have already threatened to abandon their job, but were prevented by others. The teachers did not even receive the P5,000 Christmas bonus President Arroyo ordered release before December 15 to government workers.

One teacher from Jolo island even travelled to Zamboanga City just to air his complaint about the delayed salary.

"We have suffered enough, please help us President Arroyo and look into our plight," said Ali Aliwajul.

There are more than 13,000 teachers in the ARMM which comprises the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu, and Marawi City.