KABAYAN PARTY-LIST (Kabalikat ng Mamamayan)
Rep. Ron P. Salo 0917-729-2437
Atty. Ciriaco S. Calalang 0920-294-0156
Twitter: @KABAYAN_Ron
KABAYAN REP. SALO TO GSIS: WAIVE TEACHERS' LOAN PENALTIES, FORGIVE RETIRING TEACHERS' DEBTS
KABAYAN Party-list Congressman Ron P. Salo gave a privilege speech on Monday night at the House of Representatives to convince his colleagues to strongly urge the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to immediately waive incurred penalties of public school teachers in the payment of their loans.
"Certainly, the waived penalties may be miniscule in amounts, but this will certainly hasten the payment by our public-school teachers of their loans, and will go a long way in alleviating the financial burden that they are currently facing," Rep. Salo said.
The KABAYAN congressman recalled that DepEd Order No. 38 (July 31, 2017) allowed GSIS and Pag-IBIG Fund loans to be deducted from teachers' salaries without a cap, leading some to have a meager take-home pay below P4,000.
"However, the DepEd order was questioned by this representation as well as by some teacher groups, and this led to the issuance of DepEd Order No. 55 (dated October 26, 2017). The new DepEd order will prioritize deductions from GSIS and Pag-IBIG Fund loans without affecting teachers' mandated net take home pay," Salo also said.
With accrued penalties of their loans from GSIS and an imposed deduction cap, teachers will have to pay their loans and penalties in a longer period. DepEd Order No. 55 implements the minimum take home pay of P4,000, consistent with Section 47 of the General Appropriations Act of 2017.
Salo noted that the current gross salary of our public-school teachers is around P 19,000.00 but they take home far less than the gross amount due to unfortunate and unforeseen financial troubles.
"Our teachers are saddled by extensive deductions for contributions and obligations as they are forced to fall victim and borrow money from lenders that entrap them in a vicious cycle of indebtedness," Salo said.
Citing DepEd data, Salo added that the current total debt of public school teachers from legitimate private lending institutions have ballooned to unprecedented levels amounting to P178-billion, aside from the already existing P123-billion worth of loans owned to GSIS. This amounts to P301-billion worth of loans, equivalent to 55% of the 2018 DepEd proposed budget of P549-billion.
"In fact, it came to the attention of this representation that around 23,000 teacher-retirees this year failed to receive their pensions due to unpaid debts," Salo stressed.
In pushing for his proposed resolution addressed to the GSIS, the KABAYAN congressman also urged the GSIS to "implement debt forgiveness or condonation for newly-retired and retiring public school teachers from 2017 to 2022, including teachers who are deceased before their scheduled retirement, so that these teachers and their families will benefit from the value of the retiring teachers’ maturing GSIS policy.â€
He also called for the conduct by DepEd, Department of Finance, and government financial institutions of "nationwide financial literacy and enabling training to empower public school teachers to manage their personal finances better and get them out of the path to financial ruin." (END)
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