Working for a job can be tiring and draining for people, but it is almost entirely true if one doesn’t get paid for the sweat in doing so.

A Job is the idea of exerting oneself mentally and physically for a living necessity. Having a job means that a person has security over basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, and other demands for survival. What if this job, where you exert yourself mentally and physically does not cater to your needs for your daily survival necessities?

The Contract of Service (COS) teaching staff of Benguet State University (BSU), faces the issue of late compensation for their service, with all the need for family sustenance and some for their daily bread, it does not suffice.

All they want is to be given the security of being paid on time to alleviate their needs.

University growth spurt

Benguet State University (BSU) is a bustling academic institution in northern Luzon, located on the southern tip of the Cordillera Administrative Region. Once you are within the campus more than tens of thousands of students reside and grow bigger as academic years go by. This resulted in the need for more facilities and working staff to cater to its booming population of learners.

According to the university’s Office of the Vice President for Administrative and Finance (OVPAdF), the permanent position instructors collectively can only cater to 10,260 students while its lecture rooms and laboratory rooms can only serve 9,720 students as per Cordillera Administrative Region State Universities and Colleges (CARASUC) formula in computing the absorptive capacity of a university or college.

BSU – Main Campus, however, has a population of roughly 14,737 students which is beyond the capacity of the university by more than 4,000 students.

The effect of this growing issue resulted in the mass hiring of Contract of Service (COS) workers and Job Orders (JO). According to the Omnibus Rules Implementing Book V of Executive Order (E.O.) No. 292 and Other Pertinent Civil Service Laws, a COS or JO are employees whose services rendered are not considered government services and do not enjoy the benefits enjoyed by government employees. The job order covers piece work or intermittent jobs of short duration not exceeding six months daily.

However, later, COS teaching staff being recruited to work for the university will face the heavy reality of their employment.

“Of course, it’s because of the pay. I was familiar with the work and I liked the topic I was teaching. Being able to teach students from different colleges such as nursing and engineering, and knowing that you will teach students that you also taught before,” were the words of a teaching COS staff when asked about her reasons for staying to teach at BSU even though not being paid on time. This issue would span months before they could get the money worth their service and sweat.

The COS worker, who we will hide the real identity with the name Sally for her safety, was a fresh graduate of BSU and, like any other student, ready to find a job. Looking at the social media posts of BSU where an entry-level job with the information of an SG-12 salary (29,000 to 30,000 Pesos) for a college instructor is an attractive offer, Sally was one of those fresh grads who applied.

Getting a job after college graduation was a common thing to do. In this way it may pave a greater career and sustain one’s living and even survival therefore Sally applied at BSU as a COS worker.

Waiting game

“The recruitment process was smooth and fast, we got the emails and notifications of what to do and were quickly deployed to teach students,” Sally narrated.

During the employment interview, Sally’s recruiter explained that her salary would be late for a month because she is a new staff member and many papers needed to be processed.

            A month has passed and as expected, Sally has not yet been able to receive her first month’s salary pay, later on, a month-long delay became a three-month wait. According to her, a job contract was given to them to sign, once the contract had been signed it was given to the Human Resources (HR) Department for it to be verified by the President. The process was crucial to make their contracts and employment legal, the paper, however, came to them late and the process of contract signing spanned for two months. This meant that Sally was teaching at BSU for the said months without legal basis and legibility due to the absence of the duly signed contract.

Her problem in her employment did not stop there as her salary was still yet to come after her first three months of teaching as an instructor and so did other COS workers at BSU. Sally only got her January salary in early April of the second semester of Academic Year (AY) 2023-2024.

“That has been the culture with [working on] the Government, that even though you do not yet have an official job order to work, you will start working even though your contract is not yet official,” explained Ryan (not his real name), a former COS teaching staff in BSU. 

Sex life and petitions

Months have passed yet COS and JO staff like Sally are yet to receive their salary, while others are working even without the legal eligibility to work.

A petition letter was floated for a dialogue concerning the salary delay of COS and JO workers which was signed and passed to the BSU Board of Regents (BOR) the deciding body of the university. Later on, a discussion between the responsible body and the COS and JO workers finally took place to address the said complaints.

According to Sally, the admin acknowledged the petition and requested each college a COS worker and their dean to be present in the meeting due to the said petition.

“It was frankly insulting” were her words to describe the meeting and she assured that her colleagues and the majority would agree, “Parang sinisigawan lang kaming mga COS during that meeting” she added. The admin questioned why are they complaining and pointed out that the COS workers do not have legal rights due to the lack of employee and employer relationship. The admin pointed out furthermore that COS and JO staff do not have eligibility to work due to the absence of a duly signed contract. Lastly, the Admin pointed out to the COS workers that they were already warned about their salaries being delayed. Still, Sally as a newbie hire remembered that they only promised a one-month delay but in truth, it went on for more than a month.

Sally also felt that the admin was trying to guilt trip and set COS workers against one another. She remembered that the admin would joke to the concerned COS workers at the meeting about having mercy on the HR and COS workers for causing them more work to be done, even mentioning that they can no longer go home early to have sex or causing them to have no sex life.

“It’s not funny it’s just insulting since ilang months na kaming walang sweldo and eto ang sasabihin nila sa amin,” Sally expressed.

Sally also confessed that some COS and JO staff members tried to report privately to government officials. According to her account, this resulted in the admin stating to the COS workers not to tell any officials about the salary delay due to it making the process slower.

Stressed out

“Halos everyday kapag pumapasok kami eh pagod kami, kasi yung iba nag pa-part-time kapag uuwi tapus papasok pa sa isang trabaho na hindi naman kami sinasahuran tas iniinsulto pa kami for airing our concerns” Sally conveyed.

She also admitted to doing sideline work as a freelancer other than her teaching job at BSU, especially during the January to April period when she was not receiving her salary as a COS teaching staff. This was one of the ways she was able to sustain herself.

“It’s a commission-based job kasi eh and at least doon may assurance na may makukuha akong pera,” she added.

Due to this, there are some days when she opts to be absent from her teaching job. Sally expounded that she leaves the university after her lectures are done, leaving no time for consultation hours. If her class schedule is in the afternoon, she decides not to enter during the morning period just to have time to focus on her sideline.

Ryan (not his real name), a former COS teaching staff also observed the trend of his co-workers not only looking for sidelines but also depending on loaning money to sustain their everyday living expenses and for some that have immediate need of money for their family. He also pointed out that even looking for where to loan money is already a struggle.

“Some of our colleagues and fellow COS teachers focused instead on their side

hustles since they get direct money there instead of only waiting for the release of

salary,” Ryan shared.

Student’s paradigm

Sally also observed the same behavior in her co-faculties, especially those who have families to feed. They would rather find other jobs and be absent from teaching at the university, in compromise, they would give tasks or assignments to their students at the Google Classroom instead, she recalled.

She also noted the effects of the stress and low morale she receives due to her financial struggles on her students.

“There were also times na nalalabas ko yung mga galit ko or yung stress na nararamdaman ko sa aking lectures which is hindi naman typical saakin. Pag may hindi nakakasagot ng mga tanong ko, mas nagagalit ako, mas naiinis ako and sometimes I would opt to end classes early or hindi ko na naaddress masyado yung mga concerns ng mga students ko,” Sally mentioned.

Mary, not her real name, is a student of COS instructors at her college

department, she noted the changes in the behavior of her instructors in teaching

classes.

“I felt like my instructors, who are COS workers, are not that motivated to do their

job, we even sometimes experience not having a class for a certain instructor for a

week,” Mary expressed.

Not fond of funds

The Chief Accountant, Imelda B. Galinato stated that the entire COS teaching personnel is paid around ten million monthly.

In the Admin Council meeting last September, it was presented that the total number of COS teaching personnel is 298 plus 59 new COS staff for the first semester, revealing a total budget requirement of 52 million for the 5 months of service they have to render.

The admin must allocate roughly ten million pesos monthly for COS teaching staff which is mainly coming from the university’s income-generating activities.

Galinato also stated in an interview that the hiring process is done even though there is no certainty that there is availability of funds, she also revealed that her authorization for the request for hiring was removed.

“…Tinanggal yung pangalan ng Accountant to certify availability of funds, kumbaga nag hi-hire na ang BSU na hindi nila nasesecure or wala silang knowledge kung meron nga talgang pampa sweldo sakanila [COS Staff] …,” she expressed.

            Before a contract for COS teaching staff is valid, the supporting documents such as faculty workload, Daily Time Record (DTR), and other documents must be completed before the contract will be released, after that, the checking of the availability of funds is made, if there are no funds available the contracts are given back, according to Galinato.

She tried to follow up with the required documents at the Human Resource Management Office (HRMO), finding out that some documents are not yet satisfied to release the contract.

“May mga supporting documents na kailangan at mismong yung mga colleges, hindi na nakaka-submit for example yung faculty workload, kasi yung faculty workload ay beyond the control ng HRMO mismo,” Galinato explained.

Slow paper trail

Raymundo Pawid Jr., Supervising Administrative Officer of HRMO, stated that besides the contract there should be an attachment of workflow, even though the salary and DTR are computed if it does not match the workflow, the contract will not be released.

Moreover, the Compensation, Benefits, and Other Obligations Office (CBOO), the office responsible for the release of the COS teaching salary will not be able to forward the contracts from the HRMO due to the risk of Commission on Audit (COA) possibly returning the money for audit, according to him.

“Ang gagawin muna ng CBOO is to delay first until all the documents are supporting one another, when this step is done that is the time they will give the salary,” Pawid noted.

He also said that most of the delay in paperwork is due to workload and DTR not matching resulting in the need for COS teaching staff and the college to redo the documents.

Pawid further explained that the documents sometimes do not match due to the hiring process. For instance, if they opened 10 positions for COS teaching staff and only five applied, the workload needs to be distributed among them, once other COS workers are hired, the workload needs to be changed again.

“Mas maganda sana ang proseso kapag nag submit ng DTR si COS puntahan na niya ang college at i-match nila ang workload para kung hindi mag match balikan nila agad at i-attach nila yung bago na workload,” he suggested.

An untimely approval

            In addition, Pawid also pointed out the delay in the approval of the Program of Receipt and Expenditures (PRE), the projected income of the university for the year.

“It all comes from PRE, BSU cannot spend money or bring out money if the PRE is not approved, and PRE is supposed to be approved a year before the Academic Year,” he spoke.

Meaning, that they cannot recruit unless the total number of COS will be approved from the budget, due to the probability that there might be no funds available to pay their salary.

Atty. Allan Sacpa, Vice President for Administration and Finance admitted that the PRE was “conditionally approved” by the Board of Regents (BOR) on February 26, 2024, therefore the university budget is already good to be used for COS teaching salary, although, there is still a need to process their documents, payroll, and DTR.

 However, some details are still needed by the highest governing authority [BOR] of the university for the proposal of the College of Medicine (COM), hence the PRE being conditionally approved.

Moreover, when asked about the preparation of the PRE for AY 2024-2025, he said, “…We are already submitting ngayun, lahat ng mga business, lahat ng mga units ng mga offices at mga centers that are generating income, nag pa submit na kami ng income projection, kasi by November this month siguradong may meeting na. Baka pag upo ng bagong president ay may meeting na, we are doing our best na mas maaga ngayun, para maiwasan sana yung ganun na delay nanaman.”

Not worth the salt?

            Sacpa also acknowledged that the university has problems with funds for the salary of COS workers, even though the projection of income is justified to cater to COS teaching staff salary, some income is only gained for a certain month away from the due salary.

“Meron kaming budget committee, meron kaming finance team, kung kailangan na maghanap ng additional na funds, halimbawa nag project ka sa mga mangagaling sa rents doon sana yung panggagalingan ng sweldo, probably yung mga iba mag babayad pa by Decemeber so pang December na sweldo na yun,” he expounded.

Because of this, they are resorting to looking for other reserved funds within the university that do not need yet to be exhausted.

One of the identified sources of funds that can be used to pay COS salary is the Related Learning Experience (RLE) fee, which is now shouldered by nursing students.

According to Sacpa, the nursing RLE fee can accumulate roughly eight million pesos.

Moreover, he said that there is an 18-million-peso allotment for COS salary which is only good for October to the middle of November, which are income forecast that is still in the process of collection from businesses and rent.

“We will request sa third week ng November ng meeting, kung saan bagong president na yung naka upo dun, kailangan na naming i-pa approve yun [sa BOR] kasi by December wala na silang maswesweldo,” Sacpa commented.

A president’s vision

He also recognized that looking for university income to fund the salary of COS workers is more complicated because of the additional sections that are being inserted in the new programs in the College of Engineering.

“Kung minsan rin naman nakikita ko yung mga students na nagpapatulong, Nakita mo na hindi nia kayang mag aral sa private kaya pag hindi sia na admit dito, baka wala na,” Sacpa expressed.

In data presented during the October Admin Council, for the first semester of AY 2023-2024, the amount of COS for renewal is 298 plus 59 new requests for hiring to keep up with the expanding number of students, adding up to 357 COS teaching staff.

“Ang president natin yung desire niya na makapag admit ng madaming students… Kaya ang kanyang advice ‘I admit ko ang mga to at remedyohan niyo sa finance,”’

In an interview with the former BSU President, Felipe Comilla, he stated that a different equation on how the university absorptive capacity works.

Comila gave a modified equation from the CARASUC formula in computing the university’s absorptive capacity, in an example given by him: if there are 126 rooms and 50 students can accommodate each room, it would result in 6,300 students occupying all the rooms which is per CARASUC formula, he insisted however that such number is only for 1 classroom session and if multiplied by 8 classroom sessions (8 hours of teaching) it would go to 50,400 students who can utilize the said classroom.

“You will note that we used to have 8,000 or less than 8,000 enrollees but we went as far as 16,000. Ang problema, you might question me on the facilities, pero hindi eh kasi I have a different version on the facilities. It may not sound to be correct,” he justified.

In some colleges, however, online classes are utilized due to the lack of classrooms, some even have to look for classrooms in other colleges to conduct face-to-face classes.

“You do not always follow the books or always follow the theories, kaya nga leaders are theoreticians eh, that’s why we are called visionaries, to my mind, what I am saying – 50,000 (students) you will only understand me 10 to 20 years later,” he enthused.

Due to his vision to enroll more students in the university, the need for COS teaching staff continues to keep up with the rapid yearly enrollment of students.

As evident from the interviews done, the university cannot keep up with such a pace of growth, resulting in the university’s stakeholders suffering, and being left to suffer the consequences of the BSU’s expansion in receiving students.