MANILA, Philippines – Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the flak they have been receiving over the deductions in teachers’ salaries to pay off loans are “misplaced.” 

Briones defended the Department of Education’s recent orders prioritizing deductions in teachers’ salaries for the payment of loans from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) in a Rappler Talk interview on Thursday, November 16. 

“I believe they are misplaced, because as I said, who has been benefitting? Who are the major players, ‘yon talaga (those) who have been transacting? By the time that we receive the notice to deduct, the money has probably been spent. Sila-sila ang nag-uusap (They are the ones talking to each other),” said Briones. 

By major players, the Cabinet official was referring to the teachers with loans, GSIS, Pag-IBIG Fund, and private lending institutions (PLIs). 

“Pero (But) the one who has benefitted least and is servicing the teachers is the one most blamed. And media is fed with this kind of information. And it’s surprising because teachers are thinking people. PLIs are thinking people. GSIS are thinking people,” said Briones.  

In October, several teachers from the National Capital Region and Calabarzon had received salaries below the mandated net take-home pay worth P4,000 after Briones signed DepEd Order No 38, series of 2017 in July, which gave the go-signal for GSIS and Pag-IBIG Fund loan payments to be deducted from teachers’ salaries. 

This caused an uproar among teachers, causing Briones to sign DepEd Order No 55 guaranteeing teachers’ salaries will not go lower than P4,000 even if GSIS and Pag-IBIG Fund loan payments will be deducted. 

Why sign the orders? Briones said teachers now owe P123 billion worth of loans to the GSIS, which prevously threatened to sue DepEd and the teachers if the debt remains unpaid. 

Teachers also owe private lending institutions around P178 billion as of December 2016.

‘Think rationally’ about loans 

Briones explained the payroll system for teachers was designed in such a way that when deductions for the month would reduce the teacher’s salary below P4,000, the deductions would be pushed back to another pay day instead. 

But this becomes a major issue when the teacher has already overborrowed, because his or her pending deductions will just increase over time without getting paid. 

“For several years now, GSIS has been bumped off. Now, GSIS did not raise this issue with us because after all, at the end of the day, when a teacher overborrows and does not pay, when he or she retires, they will automatically deduct all the accumulated debts at compounded interest,” said Briones.

DepEd decided to step in because due to unpaid GSIS loans that had to be paid off, some 26,000 teachers did not receive retirement benefits in 2016.  

Briones added there is an “increasing number” of teachers who are losing their licenses because they are accused of estafa before the Professional Regulation Commission. Others are facing administrative cases filed by PLIs. 

“Now, my argument is, in this very touching drama, tearjerking drama, with media coming in, then maybe let us pause to think this thing through rationally,” said Briones.

She stressed the need for teachers to be smarter in their finances and mulled making financial literacy workshops mandatory for teachers.

Briones also issued a circular advising to teachers to directly pay PLIs over the counter to avoid further deductions from their salaries. – Rappler.com