Bacolod teachers’ ECOLA increase to P1,500 in 2010, Mayor says
BACOLOD CITY – Mayor Evelio Leonardia announced recently that the City Government will increase the public school teachers’ emergency cost of living allowance (ECOLA) to P1,500 from the original P1,000 beginning January next year.
The mayor made the announcement during the Teachers’ Day celebration held at the Bacolod City National High School spearheaded by the Department of Education.
Leonardia said that the city government has allotted P16 million for the teachers from its 2010 budget to ensure that they get the benefits they deserve.
The mayor also happily announced that the city government would have paid in full the teachers’ back ECOLA amounting to P66 million by December this year. It can be recalled that a Supreme Court ruling favored the teachers who filed a case for non-payment of their ECOLA several years back.
Leonardia recalled that when he was elected mayor in 2004, the teachers’ ECOLA was increased to P1,000 and he assured the teachers that the back ECOLA will be paid on staggered basis.
He stressed that the teachers’ welfare is one of the top priorities of the city government as they are instruments of education and that he believes that teachers should be paid commensurate to the hard work and dedication they give to their profession.
Other government officials who graced the Teachers’ Day celebration were Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, Usec. Anthony Golez, former LTO director Ricardo Tan, Councilors Greg Gasataya, Homer Bais, Roberto Rojas, Alex Paglomutan and Napoleon Cordova and Secretary to the Mayor Vicente Petierre III.
