TEACHERS’ CHALLENGE TO PHILIPPINE SENATE October 1, 2014 We, public school teachers urge this honorable chamber to continue its long tradition of caring for public education sector by considering the passage of “AN ACT PROVIDING FOR ADDITIONAL SUPPORT AND COMPENSATION FOR EDUCATORS IN BASIC EDUCATION” filed by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano (SBN 94); Senator Bam Aquino (SBN 2365); and Senator Cynthia Villar (SBN 2423). The bill seeks to provide a P10, 000 across the board increase in the salaries of teachers and DepEd employees (except for SBN 94 which provides for P9, 000) among other benefits. This salary augmentation proposal has been featured in many news reports in print, broadcast and in the internet even before the opening of classes this school year. Our group has also launched a month-long series of creative and colorful protest actions dubbed as Protest de Mayo that includes, santacruzan, fiesta games, Balagtasan, street theater and mass intentions that culminated in June 1 with a Zumba dance-exercise in the cities of Manila and Tacloban. Different teachers’ groups have consistently been lobbying for the enactment of the Salary Upgrading Bill which has become a perennial proposal in both houses of Congress for more than two decades. The salary upgrading bill seeks to raise the entry-level position of public school teachers under the Salary Standardization Law (RA 6758) from salary grade 10 to a higher status. We have achieved a breakthrough in year 2008, when the Senate Committees on Education, Finance and Government Service; headed by Senators Alan Peter S. Cayetano, Juan Ponce Enrile and Panfilo M. Lacson, respectively, took a decisive step to tackle several versions of said bill filed before the chamber. The majority of senators approved a consolidated version, the Senate Bill 2408 or An Act Providing for Additional Support and Compensation for Educators in Basic Education. The bill eventually gained support in the lower house and several versions of it were filed. On September 29, 2008, the TDC led more than 5, 000 teachers to the Batasang Pambansa complex to press for the enactment of the bill and submitted to the then House Speaker Prospero Nograles copies of the petition signed by more than 100, 000 teachers as well as resolutions of local legislative bodies supporting the bill. That September 29 mobilization was the biggest in recent history of teachers’ movement and a proof that the government failed to address the economic needs of its teachers. However, the Congress on June 17, 2009, approved the Salary Standardization Law-3 (SSL-3), the Arroyo administration’s preferred salary scheme for government employees. While we are thankful and appreciative for the law which provided a salary increase not just for teachers but all the government employees from period 2009 to 2012, it is unfortunate that this law does not rectify the errors of SSL-1 of 1989, particularly the supposed improvement on the status of teachers under the new salary scale. Several features of the SSL-3 which we believe have perpetuated our very poor status are the following: a) pegged the entry level position of teachers to salary grade 11; b) the increase in teachers’ entry-level salary is only amounted to P6,523spread over four-year period; and c) granted very low percentage increase for lower bracket like utility worker (SG-1) and clerk (SG-4) only 30%, for nurses and teachers (SG-10 upgraded to 11) only 54% and very high increase for higher positions like in the case of schools division superintendents (SG-26), 116%, regional director (SG-28), 134%, undersecretary (SG-30) 127% increase, and assistant secretary (SG 27), 138% Until this very moment, the current administration, now on its fourth year has not initiated any salary increase proposal for government employees, particularly teachers. The adjustment in our salaries through executive orders and DBM issuances in 2011 and 2012 were only in accordance with the SSL-3 enacted by the former administration. The budget proposal for the next fiscal year did not consider the granting of any salary increase for teachers and government employees. Considering these premises, we teachers wish to appeal for your support for this bill. We challenge this honorable chamber to rectify the error committed by Congress in 1989, an error which was repeated in 2009. The report of the joint committee on education in 1991 report explicitly recommends the upgrading of teachers economic status and considers such as one of the most effective way of resolving the crisis of education in our country. Now, after 23 years, we believe that the wisdom of this honorable Committee remains. We have started another national campaign for this bill that commenced last May through a series of mass actions. We have convinced the DepEd field officials and they are all supportive of the bill, copies of which are now circulating in our public schools for discussion and proper information. We have gathered at least 100, 000 signatures of teachers from the field as of the moment, in support of this bill. We have declared October 6 as National Day of Teachers’ Protest that coincides with the commemoration of World Teachers’ Day on October 5, 2014. And we invite our honorable Senators to join us, in that gathering and in this battle for the dignity of our teachers. #
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 09:30:47 +0000
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