Teachers’ pay hike not a priority
DBM says gov’t cannot just double their salaries due to SSL
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Wednesday said that the proposed doubling of public school teachers’ monthly pay is not a priority of the Duterte administration, a statement that is certain to dampen their excitement.
A day after Malacañang promised it will increase the teachers’ salaries, the 30,000-strong Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) welcomed the pronouncement.
“We welcome this statement from Malacañang and we hope that the President will use his influence and power to make this statement a reality,” said TDC National Chairman Benjo Basas. TDC said that teachers have been waiting for this since the President
assumed office in 2016 – with increase in salary of teachers among his campaign promises.
“Recognizing the intricacies of governance, our teachers patiently waited for the promised enhancement of our salaries and benefits, while obviously, our brothers and sisters in the uniformed service were given priority,” Basas said – referring to the salary increase for military and police that took effect this January.
But as teachers keep their fingers crossed, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said that the administration cannot just double the teachers’ salaries as there is the Salary Standardization Law (SSL), which already more than tripled their monthly pay compared with their private counterparts.
He added that Malacañang’s pronouncement needs further study, citing that the plan would cost the government about 1500 billion a year.
“That needs a study because there are 600,000 teachers and I think the salaries alone of the teachers will take up a half a trillion – that involves the doubling of the salary of teachers. That is not our priority at this time,” Diokno said.
“What I am planning to do is have a study done by a third party or private sector to compare the salaries, just to validate prior to the SSL,” he added.
According to DepEd Undersecretary Tonisito Umali said that there are 687, 229 teaching personnel, 10, 917 non-teaching personnel and 46, 379 teaching related personnel under the Department. The entry level pay for teachers (Teacher I) is at Php 19,620.00 along with other government-mandated bonuses and allowances.
The budget chief said the government’s priority at the moment is to finance the Duterte administration’s infrastructure plan, or the “Build, Build, Build” program, and social protection.
“By the way, there is still two years to go for the SSL, there’s about 15 percent to 16 percent increase in the salaries of teachers and there will be another round next year. I think the best time to see all the salary adjustment is after four years,” Diokno said.
The DBM chief also pointed out that the government has other financial obligations to support.
“What you don’t want to do is to see the entire budget as simply salaries because the government has other re- sponsibilities. We don’t want the budget as simply salaries, I don’t think Filipino taxpayers will like that,” Diokno said.
Heed the President
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday urged the DBM to heed President Duterte’s directive to find ways to increase the salary for teachers.
Drilon said he supports the President’s order to the DBM and urged the agency to review the government salary scheme.
The senator said he believes the directive should cover not only teachers, but all government positions as well, including nurses and other professionals.
The minority chief said a review of the current government salary structure is made necessary by the increase in the basic salary of the military and non-uniformed personnel (MUP).
Because expanding the salaries for the military and the police, which Drilon said he also supports, would result in serious discrepancies in the current salary scheme in the government.
“It is important that a review of the compensation package for the civilian personnel is undertaken in order to avoid wage distortion and inequality and make the salary of government professionals at par with their counterparts in the military and the police,” Drilon said.
“Today a Teacher 1 receives P21,000 while a policeman receives P40,000. Shouldn’t the teacher, shouldn’t the health worker, shouldn’t the entry-level lawyer in the Department of Justice (DOJ) be the same with everybody?” Drilon asked.
On Tuesday, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said that Duterte is planning to increase salaries of public school teachers after the government moved to double the pay of soldiers and police officers.
Roque said that Duterte has instructed the DBM to find means to increase teachers' pay as the government prepares for the submission of its second tax reform package to Congress.
Roque could not say how big of an increase the President is seeking but said it may be the same as the hike in the pay of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel.
Teachers deserve decent pay
Meanwhile, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio also welcomed the news on the possibility of wage hike for public school teachers. “As long-time advocates for decent pay, we welcome the statement coming from the Palace that President Duterte wants to increase the salaries of public school teachers,” he said.
Tinio said that the current administration has already set the benchmark by doubling the basic pay of uniformed personnel starting this year. “Our teachers deserve nothing less,” he stressed.
The President’s pronouncement, Tinio said, is “especially significant” – given that this is contrary to statements made by his key Cabinet officials from the DBM and the Department of Education (DepEd).
Tinio lashed out at Diokno for saying that raising teachers’ salaries is “too ambitious.” He also criticized DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones for her earlier statement on that public school teachers are already “wellcompensated” and that they should focus on acquiring “financial literacy” to avoid acquiring loans.
“All of these should now be set aside,” Tinio said. “We eagerly await the formal proposal from the DBM,” he added.
Both teachers’ groups are demanding “decent” salaries for teachers.
Basas noted that even before this pronouncement, the TDC has been pushing for the enactment of the bill that would grant P10,000 across-theboard increase in salaries of government teachers, among other benefits.
“For the longest time, our calls for a just compensation and treatment commensurate to our role in society have been neglected by the previous administrations,” Basas said. “We hope that this time, things would really change,” he added.
ACT is pushing to increase the minimum monthly salaries of public school teachers in basic education to P25,000 and non-teaching personnel to P16,000. “We reiterate our demand that the salaries of all government employees should be increased,” Tinio said. “We will not relent in our advocacy for decent salaries for teachers and all other government employees,” he added.
In the past, both TDC and ACT have staged a series of protest actions to “expose the real socio-economic situation” of teachers so as to pressure the government to heed their calls for higher salaries.
TDC also urged Briones to help teachers in this call for increase. “We are open to discussions if the president finds it necessary,” Basas said. “We hope that our secretary will help us in this endeavor,” he ended.