MANILA, Philippines — Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday stressed that increasing the salaries of public school teachers should be the government’s top priority as it begins the process of crafting the 2019 national budget.
In a statement, Gatchalian, vice-chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said that the pay of teachers has not been commensurate with their contributions to the society and to the country.
“For much too long now, the modest salaries of teachers have not been commensurate to their critical contributions to society as mentors and role models for the youth of this country,” Gatchalian said.
“Reforming teacher salaries to reflect the true importance of their work should be a top budgetary priority of the government,” said Gatchalian, the vice-chairman of the Senate Education Committee,” he added.
It can be recalled that Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that President Rodrigo Duterte instructed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to find ways of increasing the pay of teachers following the increase in wages of the uniformed forces.
Roque added that the plan would be funded through the second package of the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.
However, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said that despite the President’s directive, increasing the teachers’ pay is not the government’s priority.
“I think that is not a priority at this time. Our priority is ‘Build, Build, Build’ and the social protection, taking care of the poor,” Diokno said.
Gatchalian added that the salary rate of teachers was too low considering the long hours and skills-intensive nature of teaching jobs.
“If we can double the salaries of policemen and soldiers to compensate them for their hard work and dedication to nation-building, then we can surely increase teachers’ salaries as well,” Gatchalian said.
Even with the income tax cuts under TRAIN and the implementation of the third tranche of the Salary Standardization Law, entry-level teachers (salary grade 11) will still only receive a gross basic salary of P20, 179 per month in 2018.