Senator Sonny Angara has filed a bill that seeks to increase the salaries of public school teachers – a move that dovetails with the promise of President Rodrigo Duterte – to the country’s 800,000 public school mentors that it will be their turn to get salary increases following the ones given to soldiers and police officers.
In his bill, Angara proposed that the present Salary Grade (SG) 11 of entry-level teachers be increased to SG 19.
At present, a teacher holding the lowest “SG 11, Step 1” appointment has a monthly basic salary of P19,077. Under Angara’s bill, this will go up to P36,409.
To avoid “salary distortion,” the bill seeks to adjust correspondingly the salaries of teachers holding higher salary grades such as the Master Teachers. “It will be across-the-board,” the seasoned legislator said.
But the “upgrading in salary levels for all the corresponding teacher plantilla positions” will be done over a period of at least five years to allow the Department of Budget and Management to make the necessary budgetary adjustments, the veteran lawmaker explained in his bill.
While members of the uniformed services of the AFP and the DND have had their base pay increased already, with some ranks seeing their pay doubled, teachers have yet to receive theirs, despite repeated assurances from the Chief Executive.
“If you raise one, you raise all.”
“Merong kasi ‘parity rule’ na matagal nang sinusunod sa pasweldo sa gobyerno. Na ang Teacher 1, Private, Police Officer 1, Fire Officer 1, Jail Officer 1, pareho ang sweldo. If you raise one, you raise all. In this bill, we are just trying to restore this equity, ” the senator said.
He said a pay hike will demonstrate to the teachers the nation’s gratitude for their selfless work in educating its children.
“It will greatly help in motivating our teachers to strive for excellence.”
“It will greatly help in motivating our teachers to strive for excellence in their field and thus, improve the quality of our education,” Angara added.
He said his bill “will at the very least set the ball rolling in discussing the elements of the promised pay hike for DepEd teachers.”
“This sets the stage and the framework for this unfinished business and unredeemed promise. Kung may counter-proposal ang executive, of course, we will listen. Ang importante, masimulan na ang diskusyon,” Angara said.