DepEd seeks CSC help to aid contractual teachers affected by Taal eruption

MANILA, Philippines — An official of the Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday said they are seeking help from the Civil Service Commission (CSC) on providing compensation for teachers under job-order or service status who were also displaced by the eruption of Taal Volcano.

“For humanitarian reason, we are seeking support from the CSC na sana yung mga job order, kasi yung mga yan day by day, kumbaga no work no pay ang sa kanila so yun ang isang difficulty namin ngayon. [for job order because these people follow no work no pay scheme so that is the difficulty for us right now],” Undersecretary Annalyn M. Sevilla, of DepEd’s Finance-Budget and Performance Monitoring, told reporters in an ambush interview in Pasig after a press conference with Education Secretary Leonor Briones.

Sevilla, however, assured regular teachers, who were displaced by the eruption of Taal Volcano, that they will receive their salary for the whole month of January this year.

“What we did is yung kanilang payroll inagahan namin [their payroll was given earlier than its usual schedule] so instead na maghintay sila ng cutoff, so nangyari ang eruption ng Jan. 13 so mga a week after that binigay na namin yung pang-January [we gave their salary for the whole month of January so that they wouldn’t wait for the cutoff],” she said.

Based from recent DepEd records, 20,670 teachers were displaced after the Taal Volcano acted up since Jan. 13.

Sevilla said they have yet to give figures of damaged classrooms, as assessment cannot be done in the 14 kilometers danger zone of Taal Volcano as the volcano remains under Alert Level IV which means it is imminent for hazardous eruption within hours to days.