Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Quezon City

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO._ 34

Introduced by Honorable EDUARDO R. GULLAS

EXPLANATORY NOTE

For almost a hundred years since the creation of what is now the department of
Education, the payment of public school teachers’ salaries has been entrusted to one single office
= the DepEd (PSD). This office handles the printing and distribution of the Department's 485,000
teaching and non-teaching employees throughout the country. Servicing such a large group of
employees is simply beyond the capacity of that office. Thus, mistakes are committed from time
to time in the form of excesssive or unauthorized deductions, wrong computation of withholding
tax and the like. The payment of the salaries of newly hired teachers or of those who have gone
on leave without pay is oftentimes delayed to 3, 4 or more months. As a result of these
malfunctions, the poor teachers in the provinces are forced to go to Manila to follow up their
problems and in the process, spend their hard earned resources.

In fairness to deped, the process of decentralizing the payment of the salaries of public
secondary school teachers was accomplished some five years ago during the incumbency of
former Secretary Ricardo Gloria. However, the beneficiaries constitute a small fraction of the
Department's teaching staff. The greater number, comprising about 80% of the teaching staff ~
these are the elementary grade teachers ~ have continued to endure the inconvenience of getting
paid by Manila-based Payroll Service Division.

In view thereof, approval of this bill urgently sought.

EDUARDO R. GULLAS


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSEBILLNO.___94

Introduced by Honorable EDUARDO R. GULLAS.

AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR THE REGIONALIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION PAYROLL SERVICES DIVISION AND PROVIDING FOR FUNDS
THEREFOR

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress
assembled:

SECTION 1. Decentralization of the Payroll Service Division. - The Payroll Service
Division of the Department of Education (DepEd) shall be decentralized. Pursuant thereto, a
Regional Payroll Service Unit (RPSU) shall be established in every regional office of the
Department including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

SEC. 2. Duties and Responsibilites. - The RPSU shall have the following duties and
responsibilities:

(a) Process, print and distribute the salary checks of public elementary and secondary
school teachers including those of nonteaching personnel;

(b) Adopt necessary measures in ensuring the release of salary checks of teachers and
other personne! not later than three (3) days before the end of the month for which such salaries
are due;

© Ensure that the salaries and other compensation benefits of newly-hired/appointed
teachers and nonteaching personnel, including those who are returning from leave of absence
without pay, are released not later than seven (7) days from the date the documents for such
claims are received;

(d) Take all steps to ensure that complaints from teachers and nonteaching personnel for
unauthorized deductions, over deductions, non-deductions, and other salary-related problems are
attended to within seven (70 days from receipt of such complaints; and

(© Fumish each teacher and other personnel every time the salary check is released, a
pay slip containing the following information: date of issuance of the check; total salary due for
a given period; itemized deductions; and the amount being released.


-2-

SEC. 3 Manpower Complement. - The RPSU shall be headed by the Chief of the Budget
and Finance Division who shall peform this function in a concurrent capacity, and shall be under
the direct supervision of the Regional Director. The members of the RPSU shall be taken from
other division offices, if necessary. Personnel from the Central Office Personnel Service Division
(COPSD) may be detailed to the RPSUs during the transition period.

SEC. 4. Collection of Service fees. - The DepEd, through its RPSUs is authorized to
collect service fees from financial institutions accredited by the Department under the Automatic
Payroll Deduction Scheme (APDS) which shall be deposited with the National Treasury and
recorded in its books of accounts as trust receipts.

An amount equivalent to twenty percent (20%) of the total service fees collected may be
used by the Department to augment the allocations that may be provided to the RPSUs for
maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) and capital outlays. The remaining eighty
perscent (80%) of the total service fees collected shall be used exclusively for the operation of a
Provident Fund that may be established by the Department in favor of all its employees in
accordance with existing rules and regulations. The said Provident Fund shall be used for
lending operations and other purposes beneficial to all members as may be approved by its
governing board except for the payment of additional personnel allowances.

In all event that the MOOE and the capital outlay requirements of the RPSUs have been
fully satisfied, the total service fees collected shal be used exclusively for the operation of the
Provident Fund established by the Department.

SEC. 5. Appropriations. - The Secretary of Education and the Regional Secretary of
Education of the ARRM shall immediately include in their respective agency's programs the
operationalization of the RPSUs, the initial funding of which shall be charged against their
current year's appropriations and thereafter in the annual General Appropriations Act.

SEC. 6. Monitoring of Service Delivery. - The Office of the Secretary of the DepEd shall
monitor the operation of the RPSUs particularly with regard to the quality of services to teachers
and nonteaching personnel as well as the utilization of funds provided to the respective RPSUs.

SEC.7 Penal Clause. - Any person who willfully violates or cause the violation of any
provisions of this Act shall, upon conviction, be penalized with a fine of Twenty thousand pesos
(20,000.00) and/or imprisonment of not less than three (3) months but not more than one (1)
year or both depending upon the discretion of the court.

SEC. 8. effectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in the official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,