MANILA, Philippines — Public school teachers on Wednesday urged the Senate to act on their demand for salary increase instead of tossing the issue to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
“If our senators are sincere in improving the lives of our civil servants, they can act on it and not leave the matter in DBM’s hands,” Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) chair Joselyn Martinez said in a statement.
Martinez said the DBM had been “stingy” in granting salary increases for government workers, some of whom trooped to the Senate to urge legislators to “correct the pitiful allocation for our pay hike.”
Sen. Ralph Recto had asked the DBM to endorse an executive order that would grant the increase for 1.2 million government employees rather than wait for a legislated increase.
But ACT aired apprehension on this, describing DBM’s proposed salary increases as “crumbs.”
“DBM’s proposal would only amount to a P1,400 monthly increase next year, a far cry from our demand of raising the base pay from the current P20,754 to P30,000 monthly,” Martinez said.