Payment of Clothing Allowances to Public School Teachers

December 20, 1977

LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS NO. 641

DIRECTING THE PAYMENT OF CLOTHING ALLOWANCES TO PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS

WHEREAS, female government employees have been allowed clothing allowances to permit them to purchase uniforms;

WHEREAS, due to funding limitations, public school teachers have not been extended the privilege of drawing a clothing allowance;

WHEREAS, notwithstanding the series of three (3) salary increases approved for public school teachers during 1977, teacher salaries continue to be relatively low;

NOW THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, do hereby issue the following instructions:

1. All female public school teachers employed by the national government in the elementary schools and national high schools, shall receive a clothing allowance of P150 each per annum. The amount involved shall be charged to savings in the programmed appropriations for current operating expenditures in the budget of the Department of Education and Culture.

2. All local governments are authorized to grant a similar clothing allowance for teachers in local schools. The cost shall be charged to budgetary savings of local government units, including savings in amounts released to them as national government aid for local schools.

3. The grant of clothing allowances shall be effective in Calendar Year 1978, provided that a first installment on the CY Clothing Allowance shall be paid immediately out of budgetary savings in Calendar Year 1977. The unpaid balance shall be paid from budgetary savings realized in 1978. Beginning CY 1979, the budget of the Department of Education and Culture shall provide specifically for the clothing allowance requirement.

4. Female teachers in barrio high schools and nursery schools and in community colleges may likewise draw clothing allowances, chargeable to the same DEC budgetary savings.

5. Clothing allowances shall be paid to teachers in cash. The Secretary of Education and Culture shall issue such guidelines as may be necessary to ensure uniformity in style, color, type of material, and other related specifications: Provided, That, in no case shall the guidelines be so specific as in effect to require the purchase of a specific manufacturer's product or of a specific brand. acd

6. The possibility of a linkage arrangement among the Development Bank of the Philippines, textile manufacturers, and the national government shall be explored by the Secretary of Education and Culture, the Commissioner of the Budget, and the Chairman of the Development Bank of the Philippines, who shall submit recommendations to the President on the matter.

7. The Commissioner of the Budget shall issue the rules and regulations pertaining to the identification and use of savings and to the release of funds for public school teachers, in the amount of fifty-two million, five hundred thousand pesos (P52.5 million), more or less, to meet the requirements of the about 350 thousand school teachers at P150 each per annum.

8. The Secretary of Finance shall issue the rules and regulations pertaining to schools supported by local government units. acd

DONE in the City of Manila, this 20th day of December, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-Seven.