CAGAYAN de Oro City 2nd District Representative Rufus Rodriguez on Friday called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to fill the available teaching positions to address a shortage of teachers in the city.
“I urge DepEd to promptly fill up the available teaching positions to address the lack of teachers in the city of Cagayan de Oro,” Rodriguez said.
Earlier, the department responded to the request of Rodriguez during the Deped budget deliberations last September for the creation of 297 teachers in Cagayan de Oro City.
Rodriguez even lauded the move of Deped on filling up teaching personnel at the department’s vacant teaching positions in the city.
In a letter to Rodriguez, Usec. Gloria Mercado said that there are a total of 18 teaching positions initially provided for the entire city of Cagayan de Oro in 2022 for senior high school and 1 for kinder/elementary in the 2nd district.
The education undersecretary likewise stated that additional 17 teaching items shall be allocated to the 2nd district of Cagayan de Oro in 2023.
This is subject to revision and shall prioritize schools with a shortage of teachers.
According to the Government Manpower Information System of the Department of Budget and Management, the Schools Division Office of the city has 211 unfilled teaching positions as of July 2022.
The filling-up of these items according to Mercado will partly augment the need for the teachers of the SDO.
Rodriguez recalled that DepEd-10 Art Bayocot and Cagayan de Oro Supt. Cherry Limbaco-Reyes said that Cagayan de Oro City needs 297 additional teachers for 2023.
It can be noted that during the budget deliberations for 2023, Rufus earnestly fought for the restoration of the P80.5 billion budget for classroom construction slashed from the proposed P86.4 billion budget of DepEd for next year.
This also includes his proposal to allocate funds for more teachers in his district.
Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte during the deliberations expressed her gratitude to Cong. Rufus for “passionately expressing the sentiments of the Department of Education."
Meanwhile, House Bill 6452, or the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines (VIP) Act, principally authored by Rodriguez, was approved on the second reading in the House of Representatives on November 29.
The bill seeks to create a virology institute that delves into the study of viruses or the field of virology and shall focus on the following areas:
A. Research on viruses using a modern approach such as molecular biology or biotechnology;
B. Development of diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics;
C. International cooperation and network of databases of virus infections;
D. Operation of a virus gene bank, virus genome laboratory, and virus reference laboratory to focus on viruses circulating in the Philippines for disease prevention and epidemiological studies; and,
E. Operation of a virus high containment laboratory dedicated to the study of highly infectious and highly pathogenic viruses.
Under the proposed law, the VIP shall be an attached agency under the Department of Science and Technology.
Rodriguez said it shall serve as the country’s premier research and development institute in the field of virology, encompassing all kinds of viruses and viral diseases in plants, animals, and humans.
It shall be a venue for scientists, research institutes, and other organizations in the Philippines and abroad, to work collaboratively to study viruses of agricultural, industrial, clinical, and environmental importance.
“The Covid-19 pandemic tragically reminded us of the fact that we are lagging in the field of virology science and technology,” Rodriguez said.
“It highlighted the weakness of the country’s health system and the bureaucracy involved in making decisions to address health scares and pandemics,” he added.
According to Rodriguez, the Philippines needs an institution dedicated to “diagnostics that will detect and limit the spread of the existing viruses, create vaccines to provide long-term protection, and develop treatments to save lives in the shorter term.”
The same bill was filed by Rodriguez and was approved in the 18th Congress, but Senate failed to act on it.
