Govt ‘working’ on teachers’ pay hike
Credit to Author: CATHERINE S. VALENTE, TMT| Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2019 16:18:29 +0000
President Rodrigo Duterte had not abandoned his pledge to increase public school teachers’ salaries, Malacañang said on Monday as School Year 2019-2020 opened.
“The President is working on that and hopefully that can be responded to. Our economic managers are doing everything to see how things can be done,” Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters.
As millions of schoolchildren trooped to schools nationwide, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) staged a protest near Malacañang to highlight problems — from low pay to inadequate facilities — that continue to plague the education sector.
Government officials have said that implementing higher salaries would cost from P150 billion to P344 billion. The call for pay hikes has mounted as Duterte already followed through on a campaign promise to raise the salaries of uniformed personnel.
Panelo, who said “the President has not been reneging on his commitment,” noted that “many things… occurred” since Duterte took office in 2016.
The President “had to increase the salaries of the soldiers, as well as the PNP (Philippine National Police)… [who] are the frontliners in securing our country…,” the Palace spokesman sad. “[W]hen they go out of their homes, half of their feet are already buried on the ground.”
“But you must remember that the mother of the President was a teacher and so his heart is [also] with the teacher,” Panelo continued.
Economic managers had been ordered to look for funding sources, he said, noting that a Palace order would be useless without money to back it up.
“Hopefully, let’s see because I have talked to the secretary of Finance and Budget manager; they said they are working on it. Let’s see how it goes,” Panelo said.
He said that Duterte could meet with teachers’ representatives in Malacañang to discuss the wage hike.
“I’ll talk with the President about that,” the Palace spokesman said.
As over 27.2 million students were welcomed by public schools and several private institutions nationwide on Monday, the Department of Education (DepEd) said it would focus on completing repairs to facilities damaged by recent disasters while also working on a teachers’ pay hike.
“School buildings were left incomplete [because of] delays of the approval of the national budget and the succeeding natural disasters that wreaked havoc in our schools,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said.
“All in all, we were 99 percent ready,” she added.
Education Undersecretary Anna Sevilla said the DepEd’s P2-billion Quick Response Fund had been depleted. She called on the Budget department to consider a larger outlay.
“We anticipate more disasters and we have raised the standards for the school buildings,” Briones also said.
As for the teachers’ pay hike, she said, “We ask our taxpayers who love and defend our teachers if they would be willing to adjust the budget.…”
“The President is sympathetic to teachers, but the situation is changing in the public sector. There would be a gap in other sectors such as soldiers, police, nurses, if we could not accord the same increase to them,” Briones added.
The left-leaning ACT said the 2019 salaries of P20,754 for Teacher 1 and P22,938 for Teacher 2 positions fell short of the family living wage of P23,660 set by think tank Ibon Foundation.
“Some 800,000 teachers suffer due to very low pay that is unable to afford them a decent life. Such abandonment of the very backbone of the public education system in the country vividly reflects how the state values education, hence our stance that teachers’ salaries is the topmost pressing issue this school opening,” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said.
“The new school year will be plagued by the same old issues in education — overworked and underpaid teachers, and insufficient school facilities and resources,” he also said, attributing this to a 9.5-percent decrease in the DepEd’s budget for 2019.
“Teachers, students, and parents are compelled to shell out money or solicit from other sources just to compensate for the budget cuts and keep the school running. On top of the extra expenses, teachers are obliged to perform nonteaching tasks due to lack of personnel,” Basilio continued.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said the opening of classes did not lead to traffic chaos in the metropolis, but warned that travel time could increase in the coming days.
“Our traffic personnel shall intensify enforcement of traffic rules and regulations and clearing obstructions near schools with large number of students,” MMDA Chairman Danilo Lim said.
In Quezon City, more than 80 motorists were apprehended for illegal parking and other violations. Vehicles were also towed for obstructing traffic flow and some 20 tricycles ferrying students were halted due to overloading.
WITH NEIL JAYSON N. SERVALLOS and DIVINA NOVA JOY DELA CRUz
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