A total of 150 faculty clubs have submitted to the House of Representatives a resolution seeking to increase the salaries of the country’s public school teachers.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said its members and leader-representatives filed a resolution calling for the salary upgrade of the education frontliners. The resolution was signed by 150 faculty clubs from different public schools and state universities and colleges (SUCs), 136 of which come from the National Capital Region (NCR).

The group said the salary hike of teachers remained to be an unfulfilled promise of President Duterte.

“The year is about to end and Duterte’s term is almost over, but we, teachers, have yet to see the fulfillment of his promises for a substantial salary increase for teachers. There’s only a month left before a new school year begins, and teachers will be once again subjected to non-stop work. It is inhumane, especially in this pandemic, for us to work with such measly salaries,” ACT Secretary General. Raymond Basilio said in a statement.

ACT has written House Speaker Lord Allan Jay Q. Velasco, and the House Committees on Appropriations and on Basic Education and Culture, chaired by ACT-CIS partylist Rep. Eric Go Yap, and Pasig lone district Rep. Roman T. Romulo, respectively to correct the injustices against the education frontliners.

In separate letters, the group laments that education workers all over the country have long been “overworked, underpaid, and undersupported.”

ACT said the deceptive Salary Standardization Law V (SSL V) not only failed to carry out Duterte’s promise of doubling teachers’ salaries, but it also failed to give education workers decent standards of living.

“The last school year has been hellish for our education workers. They needed to scavenge for their own resources and fund too many out-of-pocket expenses for distance learning, and on top of that, they also had to scrape what’s left of their meager salaries for their own survival,” Basilio said.

“With the surge of the Delta variant cases looming above us, prompting new sets of lockdown across the country, as well as the worsening economic conditions brought about by the inflation of priced goods, how do they expect our education workers to afford their basic needs?” he asked.

ACT recalled that Duterte had promised to significantly increase the salaries of teachers, but it remains unfulfilled less than a year before his term ends.

“We urge Congress to correct these injustices against our education frontliners. Now more than ever, teachers and education support personnel need and deserve better pay. Upgrade teachers and employees’ salaries now!” called Basilio.