DepEd, DBM pressed on CNA incentives, overdue bonuses

A group of non-teaching personnel on Friday urged the Department of Education and the Department of Budget and Management to immediately grant the 2025 Collective Negotiation Agreement incentives and ensure the timely release of the Performance-Based Bonus for all government employees.

Lawyer Domingo Alidon, national president of the DepEd-National Employees Union, said that under Executive Order 180, non-academic personnel are entitled to CNA incentives.

“According to Executive Order 180, not only union members can be granted. Every non-teaching personnel is entitled. There are a lot of savings. There is no reason not to pay that,” Alidon said in an interview.

He said DepEd should do what it did last year, when the P10,000 CNA incentive was released immediately to non-teaching personnel.

“We believe that could be done just like last year when we requested the secretary to pay our CNA incentive. We appreciated that move when the secretary announced there would be a P10,000 CNA incentive for 2024. It happened, and now we hope this will be replicated and done again, but with a higher amount,” Alidon said.

He added that the incentive could reach as high as P30,000, depending on the agency’s savings.

“Our call is that the secretary shall allocate savings and the DBM will allocate savings — P30,000 for the CNA incentive for all non-academic personnel in the department. If the secretary could do it then, why not now?” he said. “Just like last year, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, and directors immediately moved to pay our CNA incentives.”

Around 85,000 non-teaching personnel would benefit if the CNA incentives are approved.

Alidon also criticized the delayed release of the 2023 Performance-Based Bonus, which he said is nearly two years late and eight months overdue.

“We have mixed emotions because it’s too late. That’s for 2023, and it’s already 2025,” he said. “A delay of one and a half years is not fair for us employees. We hope that next time, the DBM and other concerned offices will consider the plight of teachers and non-teaching personnel in DepEd and pay the bonus in advance.”

He added that if funds for other agencies, such as the Department of Public Works and Highways, are released early, the government should also prioritize benefits for DepEd personnel who have been waiting for them.