A senator on Saturday raised alarm over the Department of Education’s (DepEd) failure to remit billions of pesos in employee contributions, warning that the lapse puts teachers’ access to essential benefits at risk.

In a statement, Senator Win Gatchalian flagged a P5.77-billion backlog in unremitted mandatory deductions to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, as reported by the Commission on Audit (COA) in 2024.

“This is one area where we can improve morale: by addressing our teachers’ and principals’ concerns in terms of GSIS and other benefits,” Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, said.

To help resolve the issue, the senator proposed allocating P3 billion in the 2026 national budget to help DepEd settle its outstanding obligations to GSIS, particularly the government counterpart contributions.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara, who earlier appeared before the committee during a budget deliberation, confirmed that DepEd has already reconciled its records with GSIS and verified that P3 billion in arrears remains from the government's share of contributions.

Angara explained that DepEd has had difficulty meeting GSIS’s compliance threshold, remitting at least 95% of contributions, due to its highly decentralized structure, which includes over 2,900 implementing units managing funds for almost one million employees.

He appealed for the Senate's help in resolving what he described as a decade-old issue, urging lawmakers to support budget provisions that would enable the agency to finally meet its obligations.

Failure to remit these contributions on time can expose DepEd employees to various penalties, including delayed loan processing, ineligibility for benefits, and weakened retirement security.

Gatchalian said addressing the remittance backlog is not only a matter of fiscal housekeeping but a crucial step toward restoring trust and ensuring the welfare of the country's educators.