Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. has sought the passage of his bill that seeks to increase the teaching supplies allowance of teachers. Revilla made the call during his sponsorship of Senate Bill No. 1964, or the “Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act”, during the Senate plenary session yesterday. The measure seeks to institutionalize the Teaching Supplies Allowance currently being granted to public school teachers. Revilla noted that the bill was passed by the Senate during the 17th and 18th Congress receiving full support from senators without any opposition in its past deliberations. Revilla last sponsored the same proposal in 2019. The Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act shall gradually increase the allowance from its current amount of P5,000 to P10,000 in three years. As a safeguard for possible changes in prices of teaching supplies, the bill also provides for automatic adjustment every three  years thereafter to account for inflation. Revilla disclosed that the current allocation of the allowance in the General Appropriations Act (GAA or national budget)  is P 4.8 Billion. He further explained that the government would only need to appropriate an additional P2 Billion when the amount reaches P7,500 and P4.5 Billion when it reaches P10,000 in 2025 “This is less than one percent of the total budget of DepEd. In this era of the trillions-peso budget, napakaliit lang po nito para ipagkait natin (the amount asked is not big),” he stated. The veteran lawmaker who chairs the Senate committee on civil service, government reorganization and professional regulation, pointed out that the current amount of annual teaching supplies allowance only provides P 24 subsidy per teaching day. “The current cash allowance also includes a P500 allocation for medical examination, kung ibabawas pa natin yan sa pambili ng mga materyales at kagamitan sa pagtuturo ay papatak na lamang sa P22 pesos bawat araw (deducting other materials and supplies bought, the  remainder is P22). Nasa P68 ang isang kahon ng chalk, P120 ang isang ream ng bond paper hindi pa kasali ang internet load (A carton of.chalk, P120 for a ream of bond paper, excluding internet load),” Revilla said. Revilla said that increasing the amount of teaching supplies allowance would be greatly beneficial to all public school teachers especially to those who want to serve the country through education, despite greener offers overseas.