Island teachers must spend much money, time to get salaries

MANILA, Philippines—With no option but to comply, more than 100 teachers from Sibuyan Island in Romblon made the long trip to the province’s main island on Saturday, chipping in hard-earned cash for an P80,000 boat rental to enrol in the Department of Education’s automated payroll system.

Nazarine Romano, principal at the Don Carlos Mejias Municipal High School in the town of San Fernando, also renewed the teachers’ appeal for any government service bank to install an automated teller machine (ATM) on the island.

This would spare the teachers the risks and high cost of crossing the Sibuyan Sea to collect their salaries—a trip that, in good weather, takes at least six hours one way.

“We are asking DepEd to please facilitate the installation of an ATM in San Fernando during the implementation” of the payroll automation program, Romano told the Philippine Inquirer on Saturday.

He was corresponding with the Inquirer by text while at sea on their long trip to the town of Odiongan on Tablas Island, where 110 teachers had arranged a weekend meeting with the local Landbank branch to open new ATM accounts for the payroll. An earlier batch left the island Friday for Tablas, Romano said.

As a regular trip from San Fernando to Odiongan usually takes several rides by land and sea, the teachers arranged special boat rides for a direct trip, renting two boats for almost P750 per passenger to pay the P80,000 fee (P40,000 per boat).

Sibuyan residents said this was the typical rental rate for special trips as the journey from Sibuyan to Tablas and back usually lasts overnight. The regular route, which includes long jeepney and boat rides, would cost at least P1,000 both ways, said former San Fernando Mayor Nanette Tansingco.

DepEd has long been pushing for the automation of the payroll system through ATM distribution, known to be the most cost-efficient way of distributing salaries to some 600,000 employees nationwide. This would save government the cost of printing and sending paychecks at P6 apiece.

Regional finance officers for Region 4B (MIMAROPA) had explained that consultations with DepEd personnel in Sibuyan were already held and they promised to help facilitate the installation of an ATM on the island, with teachers creating a ready client base. Other island towns have complied and adjusted to the system, they said.

“DepEd could save P6 per personnel every month, but the ordinary teacher would have to spend hundreds just to get their salary,” Romano said.

Tansingco said Sibuyan islanders have long been appealing for government service banks to establish a presence on the island as financial transactions, for the town hall for instance, have remained risky and cumbersome.

“The boatride is scary, especially when there are big waves. The hazards are given, and you also face the danger of being robbed,” Tansingco said.

She recalled that her municipal disbursing officer had to travel with a police escort to get the town hall’s monthly pay from Odiongan to San Fernando.

“I hope they install an ATM…. People have been requesting for this since the ’90s because we have no bank. Banks had found it not feasible, but maybe now that they have teachers to serve, installing an ATM will be feasible,” Tansingco said.

“Kawawa ang teachers [Pity on the teachers]. Their take home pay is P3,000 or P4,000, then they would have to spend for the fare to get their salaries,” she added.