Teachers’ group issues bill of 'overdue and demandable' debts and promises
Published Feb 06, 2019 16:37 pm
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Updated Feb 06, 2019 16:37 pm
By Merlina Hernando Malipot
A group of teachers has listed “overdue and demandable” debts allegedly owed to their sector and urged the government “turn its attention” in addressing these concerns in order to advance their rights and welfare.
(ACT TEACHERS PARTYLIST / TWITTER)
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) once again reiterated their demands to the administration. Following the exposé of recent “attempt” of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to gather a list of ACT members or affiliates from schools in various regions, the group came up with a counterpart list of “overdue and demandable” government debts to teachers, to which – according to the groups– the government “should turn its attention.”
“Unlike the devious list of the PNP that have caused distress among teachers, what we have brought here today seeks to bring dignity to educators all over the country,” said ACT National Chairperson Joselyn Martinez. “We have come up with a list of our pressing needs which the government owes us as all are backed by existing laws and publicly announced commitments,” she added.
The list that the group bared recently at the gates of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) contained “10 of the lawful compensation and benefits which the government has failed to pay teachers for as far as five decades.” Martinez explained that the fourth tranche of the salary adjustment under Executive Order 201, s. 2016 is “at the top of the list.”
“The last of the salary adjustments currently in effect had been stalled due to billions-worth of questionable, last-minute insertions to the budget, causing the delay in its Congress approval,” Martinez explained. Also included in the list is teachers’ performance-based bonus (PBB) for 2017 lodged the Department of Education (DepEd). She noted that aside from being “highly exploitative” – as teachers are “reportedly required to deliver 130% performance under extremely tight means” – the “paltry bonus still hasn’t been released, two years later, to 15 of the 16 regions that are eligible for the benefit.”
Martinez added that the free annual medical check-up, hospitalization benefits, and full payment of hardship allowance guaranteed by R.A. 4670 or the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers of 1966 have “never been implemented.” Likewise, she also noted that “teachers are entitled to but were not given basic entitlements guaranteed by labor laws such as over-time pay, overload pay, and the Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) benefits.”
ACT also lamented that Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA) which “has not been adjusted since 2009 to cope with the rising cost of living.” The group decried the “outdatedness” of the current PERA and called for the increase of the current rates to Php5,000 monthly.
The group ended the list with teachers’ strongest demand for a substantial salary increase, saying that the realization of the President Duterte’s promise is “long overdue.” ACT has been pushing for increasing teachers’ salaries “to be at par with those of the uniformed personnel” at a P30,000 starting pay for Teacher I, P31,000 for Instructor I, and P16,000 for salary grade 1 employees. “Recently, the President had once again made an announcement that teachers can expect a pay hike within the year, and has even called teachers’ representatives to come to the Palace to discuss the said plan,” Martinez said.
ACT, Martinez said, also submitted a letter to Duterte urging him to “speed up the long overdue fulfillment of his promise to teachers, especially since there’s barely a let up in the grim state of the country’s economy.”
In the letter, ACT also called on the President to take concrete steps towards the immediate realization of the pay hike through, the group suggested, pressing DBM to come up with a proposal that would “meet teachers’ just demands and would be implemented” prior to the midterm elections in May. “We will exhaust all possible means to advance teachers’ rights and welfare, as should the government,” Martinez ended.
(ACT TEACHERS PARTYLIST / TWITTER)
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) once again reiterated their demands to the administration. Following the exposé of recent “attempt” of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to gather a list of ACT members or affiliates from schools in various regions, the group came up with a counterpart list of “overdue and demandable” government debts to teachers, to which – according to the groups– the government “should turn its attention.”
“Unlike the devious list of the PNP that have caused distress among teachers, what we have brought here today seeks to bring dignity to educators all over the country,” said ACT National Chairperson Joselyn Martinez. “We have come up with a list of our pressing needs which the government owes us as all are backed by existing laws and publicly announced commitments,” she added.
The list that the group bared recently at the gates of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) contained “10 of the lawful compensation and benefits which the government has failed to pay teachers for as far as five decades.” Martinez explained that the fourth tranche of the salary adjustment under Executive Order 201, s. 2016 is “at the top of the list.”
“The last of the salary adjustments currently in effect had been stalled due to billions-worth of questionable, last-minute insertions to the budget, causing the delay in its Congress approval,” Martinez explained. Also included in the list is teachers’ performance-based bonus (PBB) for 2017 lodged the Department of Education (DepEd). She noted that aside from being “highly exploitative” – as teachers are “reportedly required to deliver 130% performance under extremely tight means” – the “paltry bonus still hasn’t been released, two years later, to 15 of the 16 regions that are eligible for the benefit.”
Martinez added that the free annual medical check-up, hospitalization benefits, and full payment of hardship allowance guaranteed by R.A. 4670 or the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers of 1966 have “never been implemented.” Likewise, she also noted that “teachers are entitled to but were not given basic entitlements guaranteed by labor laws such as over-time pay, overload pay, and the Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) benefits.”
ACT also lamented that Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA) which “has not been adjusted since 2009 to cope with the rising cost of living.” The group decried the “outdatedness” of the current PERA and called for the increase of the current rates to Php5,000 monthly.
The group ended the list with teachers’ strongest demand for a substantial salary increase, saying that the realization of the President Duterte’s promise is “long overdue.” ACT has been pushing for increasing teachers’ salaries “to be at par with those of the uniformed personnel” at a P30,000 starting pay for Teacher I, P31,000 for Instructor I, and P16,000 for salary grade 1 employees. “Recently, the President had once again made an announcement that teachers can expect a pay hike within the year, and has even called teachers’ representatives to come to the Palace to discuss the said plan,” Martinez said.
ACT, Martinez said, also submitted a letter to Duterte urging him to “speed up the long overdue fulfillment of his promise to teachers, especially since there’s barely a let up in the grim state of the country’s economy.”
In the letter, ACT also called on the President to take concrete steps towards the immediate realization of the pay hike through, the group suggested, pressing DBM to come up with a proposal that would “meet teachers’ just demands and would be implemented” prior to the midterm elections in May. “We will exhaust all possible means to advance teachers’ rights and welfare, as should the government,” Martinez ended.