PUP faculty designees to lose ₱10K+ take-home pay due to night service reduction memo

ADDENDUM: Faculty designees whose night service loads are reduced to three nights lose more pay the higher their academic rank is (i.e. Professor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor)

Photo by Lourence Angelo Marcellana/The Communicator

PUP faculty designees fear take-home pay cuts induced by a joint memorandum on the reduction of regular teaching loads and night services released by the Offices of the Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs and Administration (OVPAA-OVPA), June 2.

BUKLOD-Guro PUP, a new organization of faculty designees and concerned teachers, decry the university administration's lack of consultation as well as vague rationale on the sudden implementation of the memorandum.

Original OVPAA-OVPA joint memorandum dated June 2, 2025

The PUP administration reveals in an emergency forum on June 9 an unexplained 256-million-peso projected deficit prompting this measure to save finances amid the ever-growing number of faculty designees in the university, leading to reduction of loads. 

Apparently, faculty night service rates are sourced from the university’s savings under Personal Services (PS) as only day rates are subsidized by the national government.

Reduced load, reduced take-home pay

Hundreds of designees in PUP are to be affected by the policy including Vice Presidents, Directors, Deans, Campus Directors, Chairpersons, JHS and SHS Principals, Section Chiefs/Heads, Quality Assurance (QA) and OJT Coordinators, and Research Management Cluster Coordinators among many others.

Simplified faculty designee structure. See complete PUP organizational structure here

Designees render both instruction and administrative tasks, both of which can be night service. They can be promoted either through a joint circular where aspirants would undergo evaluations by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Civil Service Commission (CSC), or through the presidential prerogative which is equivalent to an appointment.

Prior to the memo, directors and deans are required to teach one regular load and two part-time loads while chiefs and chairpersons have two regular loads and four part-time teaching loads alongside administrative work on some nights.

Sometimes, faculty designees may include in their loads unassigned subjects through the teaching substitution (TS), especially when there are more course offerings than available instructors. They can earn an additional pay by teaching more classes with part-time loads and TS.

But once implemented, the joint memorandum will reduce the night service loads from five (5) into three (3) nights only. With this, a designee earning salary grade 18, or around P49,000, is bound to lose a take-home pay not more than ₱10,000 according to an initial study.

“[Pangbayad] na ‘yon sa renta o kaya sa ibang gastusin sa pamilya kaya talaga umaaray doon ‘yong mga empleyado,” said former Research Publication Office Editorial Section Chief Assoc. Prof. Prestoline Suyat.

Meanwhile, designees with lower positions, referred to as “All Other Faculty Designations” in the memo, are now given nine (9) regular teaching units, compared to the original six (6) units which is equal to the load held by a chairperson. 

This modification is to underscore the hierarchy between chairpersons and other designees, as per Assistant to the VPAA Edelyn Mariano-Guillo during BUKLOD-Guro PUP’s meeting on June 10.

However, the additional three (3) units could have been a part-time load or TS with extra pay. The other designees now have to face reduced salary despite rendering the same volume of work with the memo.

Vice Presidents are also rid of regular teaching loads and are designated a five-night administrative service.

The memo is not the first time the PUP administration attempted to “optimize” labor amid the budget deficiency. It has previously implemented clustering of research coordinators wherein one handles three or four colleges or campuses, contrary to before when each college had its own coordinators.

Meeting at the middle ground

Talks of an impending adjustment on teaching and administrative loads have been circulating since May until the OVPAA and OVPA issued the said memorandum on June 2.

Without consultation with affected faculty designees, the memo was for approval of the Board of Regents (BOR) to be effective in the first semester of academic year 2025-2026.

BUKLOD-Guro PUP quickly questioned the lack of rationale behind the memo and sought a computation or estimation that proves the effectiveness of load reductions as measure to optimization.

In an emergency “forum” presided by the Executive Committee last June 9, designees were told that consultations exhibit “ultra-democracy” and that there are instances when leadership should decide on its discretion. Additionally, the ExeCom said that the joint memo only serves as a remedy until the budget is finalized.

Despite being told that “hindi ito isyu ng sikmura,” faculty designees assert that any decision concerning livelihood should be consolidated with all affected parties.

“Laking problema ‘yon, walang paliwanag bakit kulang ‘yong sahod. Eh ‘di nabahala ‘yong mga tao [...] Ito pa yung malaking punto talaga. Doon sa memo, makikita niyo, ang nagsasakripisyo lang talaga [ay] ‘yong maliliit sa ibaba,” Center for Creative Writing Chief Merdeka Morales told The Communicator.

“‘Bilang leader ng university, [...] paano niyo ipapakita sa ‘min na pangungunahan niyo ang pagbalikat sa krisis kasama ng mga maliliit?’ Para hindi naman mukha silang immoral at unethical, so ano ‘yong sacrifice nila?”

Some designees consider the meeting as a last-minute redress to the embroiling dissent to the memo due to a slated BUKLOD-Guro forum on June 10. It was far from “cordial” and “consultative,” an attendee described. 

“Sumasalubong na kami doon. Sana sumalubong sila kasi ‘yon ang demand nila. [...] At hayaan niyo kami na tumulong sa pag-resolve sa problema, ‘yong community,” Suyat on the demand to implement a four-night service to all designees for equal sacrifices.

“Tingin namin hindi ultra-democracy ‘yan. Demokrasya ‘yon. Dapat umiral na kinokonsulta mo ‘yong lahat ng sectors involved at ‘yong lalong maaapektuhan dahil nagdedemand sila ng sacrifice.”

The collective also remains undeterred despite being subjected to intimidation and bot swarming online.

Position paper of the PUP Office of the Faculty Regent and faculty designees on the joint memorandum publicized via BUKLOD-Guro PUP’s Facebook page on June 19

BUKLOD-Guro outlined a five-point demand in a position paper submitted to a BOR meeting last June 17:

• To impose four (4) night service per week applicable from the Executive Committee to lower and mid-level designees to help offset projected deficit

• To retain six (6) units instead of nine (9) in the regular load of other designees

• To provide three options for night service: Option 1 (4:30-7:30 PM), Option 2 (5:00-8:00 PM), and Option 3 (6:00-9:00 PM)

• To craft flexible setup that encourages work-life balance in designees and teachers, enabling their personal, professional, and academic development such as the pursuit of masters and doctoral studies

• To push for the inclusion of night service pay in the PUP Budget to prevent any more instances of salary cuts due to deficits

However, the joint memo was not included in the official agenda of the BOR meeting.

“Dito, nararapat itanong: Bakit hindi naging bahagi ng pag-uusap ang memo, gayong malinaw ang bigat ng epekto nito sa mga guro at operasyon ng pamantasan?” an official statement by BUKLOD-Guro read.

‘Include night service pay in PUP budget’

The PUP administration admitted to foreseeing a ₱256 million projected deficit in its savings at the June 9 meeting, thus attributing the necessity of the memo to the savings’ disproportion to the influx of promotions.

But Faculty Regent Ramir Cruz asserted on June 10 that faculty designees are not liable for the deficit due to their elevating ranks and designations as it is a manifestation of their steadfast professional development.

The cause of the deficit remains uncertain, with some designees attributing it to a possible financial mismanagement or misappropriations on the part of the university’s finance bodies.

Apparently, only day rates are subsidized through the General Appropriations Act (GAA) because the national government only advises PUP at present to source the night service pay from its savings, particularly itemized as Personal Service (PS). These savings are generated from its revenue streams such as rent of concessionaires and other services.

BUKLOD-Guro PUP urges the university administration to join them in collectively pushing the government to subsidize night services through the PUP budget in the annual GAA, as night classes are institutionalized through the Executive Order 170 of 1948 and ingrained in PUP’s identity to cater to learners who work during the day.

In addition, this is to ensure that these night services are “treated not as a discretionary task, but as a legitimate and supported component of academic labor.”

Recently, it was disclosed that the BOR proposed a P12.7-billion budget for fiscal year 2026 but was only guaranteed by the national government P3.5-billion.

In solidarity, Student Regent Troy Cabangon emphasized in a meeting last June 10 how state abandonment manifests in the unideal conditions faced by the PUP community which is induced by the chronic budget deficiency, despite the university’s significant relevance in producing batches of “top employers’ choice” that constitute the essential workforce in the country’s economy.

As of BUKLOD-Guro’s last update, a revised version of the memo is pending before the BOR. However, it claims to be a reiteration of the original memo but with the omission of the provisions regarding designees’ night service and part-time night teaching loads.

Faculty designees call for a genuine dialogue with the PUP ExeCom, especially regarding a policy that affects both livelihood and salient operations of the university.

Article: Mary Rose Maligmat

Graphics: Marc Nathaniel Servo