DepEd sale of uniforms to Kalinga teachers hit

TABUK, Kalinga – Many teachers here are complaining against a decision of a committee of the Dept. of Education for the office itself to supply their uniforms.

They said the decision has taken away from them their right to choose from which outlet to buy the uniforms.

They said the Kalinga DepEd office was pressuring them to buy the uniforms from it and had had withheld their productivity incentive bonus (PIB) of P2,000 as payment.

In previous years, they reportedly received the PIB in April, but that up to now the benefits for this year has not yet been released by the division office.

The teachers said they would not mind buying from the division office, but the price was significantly higher than the prices at stores in Tuguegarao City , Baguio City and Manila .

The Kalinga DepEd office was selling three uniform sets – one national, one regional, and one division – at P550 per set.

They said they can buy the cloth for the national uniform was low as P250 in the market.

They said they had as problem with the regional and division uniforms because these had distinct embroideries which were not available outside.

But Solaiman Lazaro, owner of the Prince Lord Tailoring where many of the teachers were having their uniforms sewn, said even with the embroidery , the regional and division uniforms would not cost more than P450.00 if he himself did the purchasing.

OIC Assistant Division Superintendent Natividad Bayubay said the delayed processing the PIB was not connected with the sale of the uniforms.

She said vouchers for the PIB of three of the 10 school districts of Kalinga have already been signed, adding that the delay in the processing was caused by the failure of the teachers to submit their requirements such as their performance rating in the past school year.

She justified the decision of the division committee to supply the uniforms, saying that DepEd Memorandum No. 01, series of 2007, gave the committee the option to decide on the modes of procurement and distribution of the uniforms.

On the higher price of the DepEd Kalinga uniforms, she said the committee presumed that rates of the supplier were reasonable because the same supplier was supplying almost all the divisions in the Cordillera, NCR, and Regions V and VIII. – By EAJ