(MANILA BULLETIN)

The 900,000 public school teachers under Department of Education (DepEd) will receive their P1,000 World Teachers’ Day Incentive Benefit (WTDIB) on Oct. 5, Quezon City 4th Rep. Marvin Rillo said. 

“In the 2023 General Appropriations Law, Congress earmarked the amount of P900 million to pay for the WTDIB in the amount of P1,000 per teacher on Oct. 5,” Rillo, a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, said in a statement Sunday, Oct. 1. 

“We, in Congress, are totally committed to provide the annual appropriations required to pay for the WTDIB of our teachers. In fact, in the 2024 national budget that the House approved last week, we’ve set aside another P912 million to pay for the WTDIB of our teachers next year,” Rillo said. 

Last Sept. 27, the House passed on third and final reading House Bill (HB) No. 8980, or the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB). Next year's GAB or proposed national budget is pegged at P5.768 trillion. 

The current national budget is P5.268 trillion. 

Public school teachers first enjoyed the WTDIB four years ago, when Congress inserted the incentive benefit as an item in the General Appropriations Law of 2019 with an initial funding of P800 million. 

World Teachers’ Day is an international day declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 

It is held annually on Oct. 5 to celebrate the work of teachers and their crucial role in the development of children and adolescents. 

Rillo had pressed for the passage of House Bill (HB) No. 203, which seeks to increase by 36 percent the starting pay of public school teachers. 

Under the bill that Rillo co-authored, the entry-level monthly pay of public school teachers would be bumped up to P36,619 (Salary Grade 15). At present, the starting monthly pay of DepEd teachers is pegged at P27,000 (Salary Grade 11). 

HB No.203 also seeks to fix at P16,000 the minimum monthly pay of all non-teaching personnel employed by DepEd.