Groups blame contractualization for the death of a Bulacan teacher

“While there are personal circumstances surrounding this tragic incident, we believe that this is just one of the consequences of employing the scheme of contractualization of public school teachers.” Said Benjo Basas, national chairperson of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) and the 1st nominee of Ating guro Partylist.

According to news report last weekend, Billy Cristobal, a teacher of Norzagaray National High School in Bulacan took his own life on Wednesday after a suspected depression when failed to collect the back wages due him from the municipal government.

Cristobal is categorized as LGU-paid teacher and his salary is coming from the municipal government, unfortunately, his contract for another teaching job is not renewed this year.

Basas said “According to the latest DepEd report, there are around 37, 000 locally-paid teachers for this year. These are the teachers whose qualifications and tasks are no different from their national counterparts yet they only receive a monthly salary of 3, 000.00 to P10, 000.00 compared to the P18, 500.00 entry-level minimum pay of teachers in DepEd plantilla.”

Basas argued that the DepEd should prioritize teachers who served either as volunteers or contractuals in hiring for permanent positions so that locally-paid teachers will immediately be absorbed by the national government should there be a vacant or newly created positions.

“The ultimate solution of course, is to hire teachers according to the need of the field. While we recognize the LGU assistance in hiring teachers, this should be treated as temporarily and should be made to fill the urgently needed gaps.” Basas added.

Ating Guro Partylist vowed to propose legislation to put an end to contractualization of public school teachers which is one of its legislative platforms when it joined the party list race last May.

Unfortunately, they are among the 5 ‘winning’ parties whose proclamations were held pending the final decision on the petitions of disqualified parties.

“This very unfortunate incident should have been avoided.” Basas ended.

Reference: Benjo Basas, 09205740241

NEWS RELEASE
June 11, 2013

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