Duterte to Congress: Pass new law on gov’t workers, teachers salary hike

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday urged Congress to pass a new Salary Standardization Law (SSL) to increase the pay of government workers, including public school teachers and public hospital nurses.

“To the teachers who toil and work tirelessly to educate our young, kasali na po dito ‘yung hinihingi niyo. Hindi masyadong malaki pero it will tide you over,” Duterte said in his fourth State of the Nation Address (Sona) at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.

Teachers have been asking Duterte a pay hike after Congress approved a massive increase in the base pay of military and other uniformed personnel last year.

Earlier, the President admitted that it was harder to increase the salary of teachers since there are more of them than uniformed personnel.

Malacañang has also appealed to the teachers to be more patient as the government was still looking for possible sources of funding to cover the salary increase.

READ: Duterte: Teachers next in line for pay hike

Under former President Benigno Aquino III in 2015, the government approved the SSL which mandates a 4-year salary increase to the basic salaries of government employees. The compensation adjustment already ends in 2019./kga