A group of education workers urged President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. to prioritize the upgrading of teachers’ salaries amid runaway inflation and oil price hikes.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines called on the incoming administration to realize the “failed salary increase promise” of outgoing President Duterte.

“The low salaries of teachers are not commensurate to their needs and that of their families and to the indispensable role of teachers in delivering education to millions of youth,” ACT Philippines Secretary General Raymond Basilio said in a statement issued Wednesday, June 8.

Basilio noted that the economic hardships of teachers “stem from the very basic problem of low salaries.”

“It’s well-known how teachers struggle to feed their families and shoulder the costs of education even before the pandemic hits,” he said.

Teachers, he added, have also “long suffered the effects of poor support from the government and rising prices of goods and commodities, which only worsened amid the health and socio-economic crises.”

ACT said that among Duterte's campaign promises include doubling teachers’ salaries --- which he “repeated several times after being elected in office.”

However, the group noted that only the pay of cops and soldiers was doubled to at least P29,668 while teachers were only given around P1,500 annual increase through the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) V.

ACT said that nurses, on the other hand, received a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court in 2019 which raised their entry-level pay to salary grade 15—coming to a monthly P33,575 in 2021.

These, the group said, “effectively left teachers behind” as they only receive Php23,877 in salaries per month in 2021.

Meanwhile, ACT also urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to demand the “long overdue” pay hike for nearly a million of its employees.

“Teachers deserve decent pay,” Basilio said. “We call on the government to finally upgrade teachers’ salaries to salary grade 15,” he added.