Manila teachers lose P500 monthly benefit

The Manila City government yesterday announced that public school teachers would no longer be longer entitled to a P500 monthly allowance following a city audit memorandum in November which described the cash disbursement as “without legal basis.”

“With all due respect, the Manila government owes [the teachers] nothing. That assistance was given out of the generosity of Mayor Alfredo Lim. It is not an obligation [of the city government] and it has always been subject to the availability of funds,” Mayor Alfredo Lim’s chief of staff, Ricardo de Guzman, said in a press statement.

He said that the memorandum also cited the Salary Standardization Law which stated that “no funds shall be utilized to pay honoraria, allowances or other forms of compensation to any government official or employee, except those specifically authorized by law.”

De Guzman added that according to the memorandum, the P500 monthly allowance may be considered “double compensation” since the teachers were already entitled to a P2,000 monthly allowance from the city under the Special Education Fund.

Last week, members of the Manila Public School Teachers Association (MPSTA) held a rally in front of city hall to demand the release of the P500 allowance.

The incentive which was last  distributed in June 2010 has been one of the incentives allotted for the city’s teachers since 2005.