ARMM teachers get poll back wages

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—More than 1,000 teachers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are finally being paid salaries that had been partly withheld from them for years, but the back wages are not yet necessarily being released in full.

The payment of the backwages, some dating back to 2007, began on Wednesday as the election campaign of acting ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman went full steam.  Hataman, an ally of President Aquino, is pitted against Moro National Liberation Front founding chairman Nur Misuari and former Sultan Kudarat congressman Pax Mangudadatu.

Jamar Kulayan, ARMM education secretary, denied that the payment of the back wages was aimed at boosting Hataman’s chances against the two equally formidable candidates.

Most of those who received their partial backwages were teachers assigned election duties.

Kulayan said politics was not a factor in the release of the money,  amounting to P146 million,  as this comprised back wages the government owed the teachers. Many teachers in the ARMM have not been receiving their salaries regularly since 2007; some months they receive their salaries but sometimes they don’t.

“These are unpaid salaries of the previous administration that started in 2007. Some of them continued working, but were not included in the payroll,” Kulayan said.

Hataman said part of the mentors’ delayed salaries were released due to “painstaking follow-up” made by regional officials at the Department of Budget and Management. He said the regional government was now working for the release of the remaining unpaid salaries, amounting to P65 million for ARMM kindergarten teachers alone.

Hataman said there was no politics in the releases.

Last week, two projects involving health care and employment were also launched in the ARMM and officials said these had nothing to do with politics even if the launching came just a few weeks before the elections.

Soon after the local campaign period started in March, the ARMM’s Department of Health launched the “Belly Gud for Health Campaign,” which is actually a fitness campaign with a cash prize of P25,000 and grocery package for the “biggest (weight) loser.” But the program actually started last Sunday.

The search, which is open to all ARMM residents aged 18 and above, is aimed at finding overweight people who can lose 15 pounds or more in the next few weeks.

The ARMM’s Department of Public Works and Highways has announced it will be hiring students and out-of-school youths as temporary project workers in the eight ARMM engineering district offices in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.

Regional Public Works Secretary Emil Sadain said the temporary employment project was similar to the Education department’s SPES (Special Program for Employment of Students) offered during summer breaks.

Sadain said the salaries of workers hired under the program will be drawn from the department’s “huge 2012 savings.”

Jo Henry, a member of Hataman’s media bureau, said the new programs were never intended to boost the acting governor’s candidacy.

“One way to improve governance is to listen to criticisms, and adopt the constructive ones,” said Rey Pelaez, Hataman’s research specialist