Teachers group decries alleged order to implement suspended RBPMS

Members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Wednesday trooped to the Department of Education (DepEd) to protest supposed orders to make teachers submit documents despite the suspension of performance and results-based incentives across bureaucracy. 

The group said that teachers have received orders from schools division offices to submit the 2023 Individual Performance Commitment and Review Forms (IPCRF) and Office Performance Commitment and Review Forms (OPCRF) under the Results-Based Performance Management System (RBPMS) within the month of July. 

Last month, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. suspended the RBPMS and the Performance-Based Incentive (PBI) System in the government due to duplication and redundancy issues that need to be addressed.

“These directives impose unjust pressure on teachers to submit non-mandated documents, blatantly defying Executive Order No. 61, which explicitly and immediately suspends RPMS and PBIS,” ACT NCR union president Ruby Bernardo said. 

“This is a glaring example of DepEd's consistent overburdening of teachers with excessive responsibilities, even forcing compliance with outdated performance review systems which not only violates an executive order but also inflicts undue stress and workload.” 

GMA News Online has sought comment on the matter from both DepEd and Malacañang.

In June, Malacañang said that the RBPMS and PBI systems lacked a review mechanism leading to the accumulation of rules, regulations, and issuances from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the Harmonization of National Government  Performance Monitoring, Information, and Reporting Systems.

“It makes compliance burdensome, bureaucratic, laborious and time consuming for government agencies,” the Palace said.

The President thus ordered the creation of a technical working group to study and review the two systems.

The ACT said the DepEd should “respect the executive order and cease any further orders for these submissions.”

“Both RPMS and PBIS were implemented under the guise of efficiency, driven by foreign interests, and have prioritized austerity over the welfare of employees. The government must acknowledge these fundamental flaws and move towards completely abolishing such exploitative frameworks to ensure fair and just treatment of all public sector workers,” Bernardo added. — BM, GMA Integrated News