2nd Distrist Rep. Manuel Sagarbarria, who was recently appointed as Regent of the Negros Oriental State University, vowed that its part-time Senior High School teachers may get their pay soon.
Sagarbarria expressed surprise and disappointment at the same time upon learning of the plight of the teachers, who had rendered services for five months in the first semester without having received a single centavo in salaries.
According to the congressman, it is unfair that these teachers do not get paid for services rendered and that NORSU must exert further effort to find ways to pay the teachers.
Congressman Sagarbarria said the issue on the non-payment of salaries was discussed during their board meeting on Oct. 28 at the Commission on Higher Education in Diliman, Quezon City.
NORSU officials, it appears, are afraid to appropriate or use University funds for such purpose, fearing they will be charged with technical malversation if they do so, he noted.
Sagarbarria, however, agreed that while NORSU cannot use the Special Trust Fund for the salaries of the SHS part-time teachers, it can “borrow” money from unexpended funds or its general fund as cash advance until the Department of Education has downloaded the vouchers intended for the senior high school program.
Sagarbarria, who represents the House of Representatives in the Board of Regents, said Bayawan City Mayor Pryde Henry Teves also sits in the Board, representing Sen.Paulo Benigno Aquino.
Early on, SHS principal Carlo Bernaldez explained that the part-time teachers’ wages are to be charged against the DepEd vouchers as the salaries are not included in the NORSU’s regular budget.
However, months had passed until the first semester was over but NORSU still failed to pay the teachers for many reasons, the latest of which appears to put the blame on DepEd for allegedly not being able to download the vouchers to NORSU.
Bernaldez and some NORSU officials have not responded when asked to comment on this.
DepEd-Negros Island Region assistant regional director Dr. Salustiano Jimenez has also declined to issue a statement.
Meanwhile, another member of the NORSU’s Board of Regents, Dr. Rick Santos, in a text message said that according to his latest information, “the data on NORSU’s SHS salaries as submitted to PEAC, the agency assigned by DepEd to process the OVPs, stalled”.
“PEAC set the deadline of submission be to June 30,” he added.
But Dr. Santos disclosed that “somehow the processing now is at DepEd directly”.
Santos further disclosed that Dr. Rosemarie Pinili, NORSU’s VPAA, is pushing to have the download data established.
“We in the BOR are in consensus to already advance the salaries, on the condition that the downloaded data establishes the exact amount” to be covered, Santos said.
“Without it, the BOR has no basis to approve an amount which is arbitrary and (have) no basis,” Santos added.
As this developed, classes have resumed for the 2nd semester at NORSU on Monday, with SHS teachers still not being given teaching loads.
A few of the teachers are allegedly deliberating on whether to release the grades of their senior high school students or withhold them until they are paid their salaries.
But some quarters are appealing to the teachers, saying that if they did not release the grades of the students, the students would not be able to enroll for the 2nd semester.
Education Sec. Leonor Briones, who was contacted earlier for comment, has yet to reply to this reporter. (PNA)
