To help improve teachers and principals’ access to benefits, Senator Win Gatchalian eyes the allocation of P3 billion to help clear the Department of Education’s (DepEd) arrears from unremitted Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS) contributions. 

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

In a hearing on the proposed 2026 budget of the DepEd, Gatchalian cited the Commission on Audit’s 2024 report showing DepEd’s failure to remit P5.77 billion in mandatory employee deductions to GSIS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, putting workers’ benefits at risk and exposing them to penalties.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara said DepEd and GSIS have reconciled their accounts, leaving P3 billion in arrears from government counterpart contributions. The DepEd sought the Senate Finance Committee’s help to settle the decade-old obligations.

Secretary Angara also shared that DepEd is struggling to meet GSIS’s threshold of receiving 95% of the arrears from employee deductions due to over 2,900 implementing units covering nearly one million members.