Honor promise on teachers' pay increase, PBBM told
Teachers remained hopeful that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. would honor his campaign promise to increase their salaries as they open their doors for dialogues with the government.
The Teachers' Dignity Coalition (TDC) said increases in the salaries of teachers were part of the promises made by Marcos when he was still campaigning for the presidency.
The group also acknowledged the declaration by the government that it is looking into long-term plans to raise public school teachers' pay as disclosed by Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte.
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“This is a welcome development, and we hope that the government will act quickly because it was one of the President's election-campaign promises that he had to keep,” TDC National Chairperson Benjo Basas said.
TDC also expressed hope for a “just compensation package” under the Marcos presidency and not a “mere increase” under the salary standardization law (SSL) as what his predecessor provided.
Beyond pay hike
Meanwhile, Basas also underscored the need for the government to pay better attention to teachers’ welfare.
“What we ask is beyond increase in our salaries, it's about rectifying the decades-old mistake of the government,” Basas, a Caloocan City teacher for 20 years, said.
Basas noted that the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers (RA 4670), a 1966 law created to institutionalize and further protect the rights and welfare of teachers, should be used as the “basis” for determining the compensation for teachers.
However, Basas said that the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) of 1989 and its most recent version, Republic Act 11466 or the SSL-5, signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in January 2020, are the laws that currently govern teachers' pay.
While acknowledging the recent wage adjustments made under the SSLs, Basas stated: “We could not help but express our frustration for the extremely low salary increases that are broken down into several tranches, a tradition under the SSL scheme.”
Since the 15th Congress, TDC lobbied for a P10,000 across-the-board increase for public education workers. This amount, the group said, is “reasonable enough because it would benefit all teachers and education employees, regardless of their status.”
Basas pointed out that teachers and government workers have “endured poor salaries and limited benefits” ever since the SSL was initially put into place in 1989.
“It is time to put a stop to this unfair and discriminatory policy,” Basas said. “It only perpetuated our poor condition and low chances for socio-economic improvement," he added.
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