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Teachers need not wait till Valentine's Day as the Department of Education (DepEd) yesterday said it will be able to pay the full P10,000 Christmas bonus of public school teachers this month.
In a statement, the DepEd said that the P10,000 Productivity Enhancement Incentive for its teaching and non-teaching personnel nationwide will be released this month after the department already paid the initial P7,000.
"The balance of P3,000 is now being processed for payment this January as the Department of Budget and Management has already released to DepEd the notice of cash allocation necessary to cover the payment of the P3,000 PEI," the DepEd said.
Public school teachers earlier said that they might as well wait for Valentine's Day, or Feb. 14, to get their full Christmas bonus because this was what happened before.
But Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said last week that DepEd's 554,000 education personnel, majority of whom are teachers, had already received P7,000 of their P10,000 Christmas bonus and the remaining balance was not far behind.
"As agreed with the Department of Budget and Management, the additional P3,000 bonus of the teachers will be paid as soon as possible," Lapus said.
"If we have to sacrifice funds allocated for other programmed expenditures to give all our teachers the full benefits due them, we will do it," he added.
Meantime, the cash bonus for teachers in Rodriguez, Rizal that was stolen late December is in the process of being replaced.
The DepEd through its Region IV-A office is making appropriate arrangements to immediately replace the teachers' bonus forcibly taken by robbers. An investigation is currently being undertaken by the Rizal Police and DepEd.
The heist occurred last Dec. 29 where some P4.9 million, allotted as cash gifts for 800 teachers in Rizal, was seized at gunpoint by robbers.
