Calbayog steps up property taxes collection to support education program

CALBAYOG CITY, Samar, Jan. 19 (PNA) -- The city government here will intensify tax collection on real properties to generate more funds for local education program.

Department of Education (DepEd) Calbayog City division and the local government, with the support from the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) hosted Monday the Education Summit.

The gathering has focused on real property tax collection efficiency, stakeholders' role on tax collection and increasing the budget for education.

Assistant city treasurer Evelyn Obong said the local government and DepEd’s goal to increase the budget for education would also mean in increasing the collection of taxes.

Obong said that one percent of the assessed value of a real property automatically goes to the Special Education Fund (SEF) of a locality.

She also shared that ever since the City Treasurer's Office has not reached the target set by the Department of Finance on the collection of real property taxes.

“In 2015, we were given a target of PhP15 million, but our actual collection was only PhP5.25 million basic and SEF or 35 percent of the total target,” Obong said.

But, Obong clarified that despite said turn-out on the collection, they were able met the target on the SEF fund of around PhP7 million last year.

She said, however, that it would be different and would be much higher if only they have collected bigger amount of the total tax collection target.

Mayor Ronaldo Aquino, in his message, expressed optimism that starting this year, the city’s tax collection will increase.

Aquino said that in the future, new businesses will operate.

With the constructed structures at previous idle lands in the city, he said owners will eventually pay real property taxes.

The mayor pointed out that Section 235 of the Local Government Code states that provinces and cities nationwide as well as cities and municipalities within Metro Manila are mandated to impose levy for the Special Education Fund.

Stressing the importance of education to the country’s future, Aquino assured that the city will exert effort for an efficient collection on real property taxes to support programs on education.

“Public education is an investment for our future,” Aquino said, adding that, “we will answer the call for an efficient collection of real property taxes to better finance our public education program.”

“Payment of taxes is our civic obligation. The improved collection of our taxes for public education should be our commitment and not only the local government unit’s responsibility but also everyone’s responsibility,” he stressed.

When the mayor assumed office, he asked the support of the officials from the 157 villages to allocate funds from their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) as their counterpart to support the local education program, particularly on the salaries of the local school board (LSB) teachers.

But since LSB teachers was abolished by DepEd, SEF is now utilized for the improvement of schools and other expenditures.

This school year, the LGU released almost PhP1 million from the SEF as an augmentation, amounting to PhP5,000 each to at least 182 elementary and secondary public schools for the Brigada Eskwala. (PNA)
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Leyte tackles SPED program issues

PALO, Leyte, Jan. 6 (PNA) - About 300 special education (SPED) teachers from the Department of Education (DepEd) Leyte Division gathered here Wednesday for this year's SPED Congress to discuss issues and concerns about the program.

Ronelo Al K. Firmo, division superintendent, said the expansion of SPED program for the entire province hadbeen met with both challenges and growth.

“Based on various surveys some parents of children with special needs are hesitant and are not supportive, while others are embarrassed. There is also a question on transportation and on who will take care of their children when they are at school,” he said, adding that "there has to be a change in our culture in terms of how we look at these children."

He explained that expanding the SPED program entails additional budget for teachers and facilities so they only open three to five SPED schools annually to fit it with their annual implementation plan and budget.

Thus, he called on local governments for support.

“As much as possible every LGU (local government unit) should have its SPED program so they don't have to bring their students to other towns. This is also aimed to speed up the transition of the students,” Firmo said.

Meanwhile, former DepEd Undersecretary Yolanda S. Quijano, in her keynote address during the SPED Congress, talked about management of the schools for inclusive education, while DepEd central office senior education program specialist and SPED division OIC Nancy Pascual discussing about updates on special education program implementation under the K to 12 program.

According to Quijano, more opportunities have to be given to children with special needs.

“All school-aged children should be accepted in school,” she said, while saying that inclusive education means “accepting all children to school and assessing those who have special needs.”

Susan B. De Veyra, SPED education program specialist in Leyte Division, also inspired SPED teachers to sustain their efforts for students with special needs.

Meanwhile, seven outstanding SPED teachers, representing the seven areas in Leyte Division, were given recognition during the event.

They are Gemmarie L. Gonzaga of Palo I Central School (Area I), Liza Espina of Cassidy Elementary School (Area II-A), Nieriza M. Tan of Burauen South (Area II-B), Anna Marie Llano of San Isidro Central School (Area III), Gregine S. Laurente of Kananga I Central School (Area IV), Janice Lecares of Balocawehay Elementary School (Area V-A), and Celesto C. Casinillo of Hilongos South Central School (Area V-B).

“Let us continue in taking care of these children with special needs so that they become independent learners. This is because their parents will not be there for them throughout their lifetime,” said Espina, the 36-year old outstanding SPED teacher from Carigara, Leyte.

Espina also thanked their local government units and other stakeholders for the support.

“I am deeply humbled,” added Gonzaga of Palo I Central School, who narrated how her colleagues and students inspire her to work hard.

“Our school has 46 children with special needs, and I am handling 13 of them in my class. Teaching them is difficult but it brings me joy,” added Espina who has been a SPED teacher for the past five years.

Sarah Cabaluna, of the regional office Curriculum and Learning Management Division and who represented DepEd regional director Luisa Bautista-Yu also shared her own experience on how grateful her family is for the DepEd SPED program.

“As SPED teachers, you are the only one who can understand these children with special needs. Continue to motivate and nurture them,” Cabaluna said.

Palo, Leyte Mayor Remedios Petilla also expressed her admiration to the teachers who attended the event.

She admitted that promotion of SPED program is not only the job of DepEd but also of LGUs, thus, she expressed commitment to discuss more about the SPED program in the school board agenda of her town.

As of the current school year, Leyte, with its 40 LGUs, has 19 towns with elementary SPED classes and three towns opening high school SPED program.

There are 605 SPED students in elementary being catered by 59 teachers while enrollment in the secondary level is about 66, with eight teachers.

Students who can be enrolled in the SPED program include those who are handicapped and those with down syndrome and cerebral palsy, and those who are hearing and visually impaired. (PNA)
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Leyte mobile teachers trained on journalism

PALO, Leyte, Dec. 7 (PNA) -- The Department of Education in Leyte (DepEd) has trained 40 mobile teachers under the Alternative Learning System (ALS) unit on journalism.

Roberto Mangaliman, ALS education program specialist at Leyte division office, said the three-day journalism workshop that concluded on Saturday is aimed at enhancing mobile teachers' capacity to document important activities in the lives of their students and stakeholders.

"Our long term goal is to produce and maintain a website, a quarterly newsletter and yearly magazine issues for our ALS advocacy. Through this, we can also improve our communication mechanism to reach out to our clientele and to our partner agencies in terms of generating program support and funding," said Mangaliman.

"This will be the first in the region," he added.

Journalism topics introduced during the recently-concluded workshop were news writing, editorial writing, feature writing, editorial cartooning, lay-outing, sports writing, photojournalism, online writing, plagiarism, and publication management.

"With your publication, you can touch the lives of your stakeholders at the same time ask their support. You can be a champion in their respective lives. Your works will be remembered, and the document you made will tell on what you have contributed," Mangaliman told the participants.

Mangaliman said they needed more support particularly from local government units (LGUs) in the promotion and implementation of their programs.

"Based on a survey consolidated by LGUs in the province, Leyte has over 60,000 out-of-school youths and adults, yet we have only catered to 20,000 plus to date. We are still looking for the 40,000," he said.

The Leyte Division ALS unit has 120 regular-permanent teachers and 171 volunteer teachers under 'Abot Alam' where each of them is handling a minimum of 75 learners, Mangaliman added.

"Our highest priority is total eradication of illiteracy in the province, yet we need more budget allocation in our ALS programs," he said.

According to Mangaliman, some of their challenges include how to maintain the support for their programs and projects to the indigenous tribes in Leyte.

"We have learners coming from Mamanwa tribe at barangay Kagbana in Burauen, and Badjao at barangay Dolho in Bato, and in Isabel, Leyte. With our indigenous people education, we try to promote their language and beliefs to maintain their ancestral domain or way of life."

"I am thankful of this training. This will help me a lot in my daily encounter with my learners," said Jake Laurence, 30, the newly-inducted Leyte ALS editor-in-chief and a mobile teacher assigned at Abuyog Leyte Sub-Provincial Jail.

International aid agencies Intersos and Unicef have also given support to the said DepEd journalism workshop. (PNA)
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DepEd Eastern Visayas strengthens communication system

TACLOBAN CITY, Nov. 27 (PNA) - At least 13 information officers and 11 regional staff writers from Department of Education (DepEd) attended on Thursday a two-day capacity building on communication management.

“The workshop is intended to capacitate the division information officers and alternate division information officers... and to strengthen linkages with stakeholders through proper communication,” said Rhoan Lucero-Orebia, OIC-assistant regional director, in her opening message.

“We aim to establish communication system in the division level to promote proper information dissemination to reach all levels of our stakeholders, and strengthen our advocacy on various DepEd programs and projects,” added Jasmin Calzita, regional information officer.

Other speakers during the event were communication unit technical staff Abigail Godoy and Angeline Santos of the DepEd central office.

They discussed about crisis management, writing press release, introduction to social media, website basics, and website sustainability.

“Social media is cost-efficient, has a potentially wide reach, encourages quick sharing of messages, and opens new opportunities to listen, engage, and monitor your progress,” said Santos, as she introduced new platforms for the DepEd to reach out to its stakeholders.

“Our goal is to improve our information, make it effective. We should remember that whatever we do the end is it will impact the children. We should maximize all the communication platforms to ensure that no child will be left behind,” she said.

Santos also urged the participants to “let the children know they are being heard, that their stories are there, and inform them of our programs as stakeholders.”

She however reminded the participants to “exercise tact, caution, and sound judgment when using the official social media accounts.”

Meanwhile, Godoy said that website content should have design qualities like "necessary and useful, credible, understandable and memorable, accessible and useable, and engaging."

The information officers, who came from 13 divisions in the region, were also challenged to come up with up-to-date newsletter and webpage. (PNA)
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