House bill seeks 30K basic salary for public school teachers

MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City 2nd District Rep. Precious Hipolito-Castelo has filed a bill seeking to raise the basic salary of all public elementary and high school teachers to P30,000 from P20,000 regardless of the length of service.

House Bill No. 1020 provides that the needed budget for the pay increase shall be incorporated in the annual appropriation for the Department of Education.

The country’s public school teachers, the neophyte solon said, remain “underpaid and undervalued,” despite the Constitution stipulating that there must be “highest budgetary priority to education and the guarantee that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.”

“With the ever-growing challenges that face our public school teachers, it is only fitting to accord them the salary increase they rightfully deserve,” Hipolito-Castelo said in a statement.

In her explanatory note, the lawmaker stated that the current salary grade of teachers is “way below their worth and their contribution to national development.”

President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly vowed to increase the salary of public school teachers after raised the salary of police and military personnel in 2018. However, Duterte said the pay raise for public school teachers will not be as substantial as those received by uniformed personnel “because the government cannot afford it.”

READ: Teachers to Duterte: Raise pay as promised

Under the 4th tranche of the Salary Standardization Law, a Salary Grade 11  public school teacher gets a monthly pay of P20,754.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones earlier said government needs some P150 billion to implement the proposed wage hike. (Editor: Mike U. Frialde)