Near stampede mars bonus release

From a distance, it looked like a stampede was in the making, shades of what happened at Ultra in Pasig last February. But on closer scrutiny, the commotion last Friday at the BPSTA building was nothing but a case of who got ahead of the pack. The bone of contention: more than 500 school teachers jostled for position in a bid to put one over the others in the release of their yearend bonuses. What seemed to have compounded the early morning commotion was the fact that the security guard withheld the release of priority numbers. That triggered the near stampede when some teachers jostled for position to get a first crack of the disbursing officer who holds office at the BPSTA building along Tamblot St. , this city. It was gathered that a big bulk of the supposed recipients were already camping at the BPSTA building as early as the night before.

In an interview with some of the teachers, they said they felt disgusted over a policy imposed by the security guard. The faulty policy of palakasan, the pasingit and the maddeningly slow cooperative staff in releasing their loaned year-end bonuses was the main complaint of the teachers. But in an interview with BPSTA manager Socorro Oceña, The Post learned that the complaints were nothing but “ako na lang lagi.” We did not anticipate they were that many coming last Friday, shared Oceña to The Post.

And we did not expect them to behave like that, Oceña continued. The cooperative started releasing the loaned midyear bonuses last Friday, and the local coop office has so far seen the thickest number of teachers asking for services altogether at the same time. Complaints reaching the Post narrate the apparent palakasan, the disorderly filing of papers and the lack of information on the process of claims.

For this, Oceña said the cooperative staff only entertains accomplished loan forms, which are done thoroughly. She said many teachers do not actually fill the forms completely, causing them to redo the process and losing valuable time. As to the palakasan system, the coop manager denied this, saying that it is the teachers who were desperate to be served first that complained. She said several teachers wanted to get priority treatment, which the cooperative can not tolerate.

Most of the teacher who arrived late last Friday allegedly complained why the security guard did not release to them priority numbers. Oceña said the coop can only accommodate as much and not more than a hundred. She reasoned out that handing out priority numbers which can not be served would even be more useless. Some teachers reportedly arrived early dawn last Friday but still were not served. Oceña said they copuld be one of those who submitted their forms but were later assessed to lack requirements, they have to redo the process, often not beating the time.

The mid year bonus for public teachers, in pro-rated amounts basing on their salaries amounted to between P7,500 to 8,500 per teacher. The coop has about 4,802 member teachers from Bohol 's total number of teachers. These teachers who are coop members sold their mid-year bonuses to the cooperative, some as early as November last year. The cooperative is reportedly set to release a total of about P18M for the loans, some P2.203 already in the hands of teachers who have received their shares. The cooperative has accumulated a total asset of P90M, and a new four storey building costing them more than P4M.

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