Teachers from Cebu have raised alarm over delayed remittances of their loan payments and contributions to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), warning that the lapses have saddled them with mounting interest charges and restricted access to benefits.

In a letter to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the teachers said their monthly loan payments are deducted from salaries but not remitted on time.

“Employees filed loans from the GSIS, and employees are deducted monthly of its payment, but sad to say, remittances to GSIS are delayed. The employees are charged with interest due to delayed remittance kaya po lumolobo ang aming utang,” the group wrote.

According to Gatchalian, a recent Commission on Audit (COA) report confirmed that the Department of Education (DepEd) has an outstanding arrear of ₱4.8 billion to GSIS and ₱500 million to PhilHealth.

He stressed that the problem has accumulated over the years. “This is beyond the term of Secretary Angara—it really just piled up,” he said, adding that teachers are also affected by arrears to Pag-IBIG and the Home Development Mutual Fund.

“This is one area where we can improve morale by addressing their concerns in terms of GSIS and PhilHealth benefits,” Gatchalian noted.

Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara admitted that DepEd has been struggling to reconcile accounts, but said progress has been made.

“We already found arrears of ₱7 billion. We really worked overtime to reconcile accounts. We sat down with GSIS so ₱3 billion na lang yung arrears from ₱7 billion. But we may need to appeal to the DBM or maybe this committee to meet those arrears kasi nag-compound na ‘yon over many years, over a decade,” Angara explained.

He further revealed that GSIS maintains a strict rule requiring at least 95 percent of an agency’s total remittances to be submitted before they are accepted.

“We were asking for leniency kasi unlike one agency na tatanggap lang siya from 12 implementing units, kami po we have 2,900 implementing units. So sabi namin, baka naman you can give a bit of leniency na yung tatanggapin n’yo ay tingi-tingi man lang. Eh hindi eh, they still insist on a 95% threshold,” Angara said.

In response, Gatchalian said he will request the Senate Committee on Basic Education, chaired by Senator Bam Aquino, to meet with GSIS and PhilHealth officials to discuss further measures and improvements regarding the local teachers’ remittances and loan concerns.