Bongbong Marcos orders study of DepEd-proposed non-wage benefits for teachers instead of pay hike

FILE PHOTO: A public school teacher during class before the pandemic. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has ordered the Department of Education (DepEd) to carefully study its proposal to give “nonbasic wage benefits” to teachers instead of a salary hike.

DepEd spokesman Michael Poa said the department proposed to the President to provide teachers nonbasic wage benefits, such as allowances.

“This has already been presented to the President, and he has instructed for that to be looked into, na ‘yung mga nonbasic wage benefits, tingnan natin kung ano ‘yung mga pwede nating madagdag para sa omento ng mga take-home pay ng mga teachers,” he said in a press briefing.

(This has already been presented to the President, and he has instructed that to look into the nonbasic wage benefits, we check if what can be added to augment the teachers’ take-home pay.)

Poa reasoned that the government could not just implement salary hikes since many factors have to be considered and balanced first.

“We have to balance those things eh, kasi if we increase the basic wage of teachers, if we make it too high, it will really affect the private sector kasi either lilipat ‘yung mga teachers in the private sector to the government or baka hindi kayanin ng private sector tapatan, baka magsara ‘yung private sector,” he said in a press briefing.

(We have to balance those things eh, kasi if we increase the basic wage of teachers, if we make it too high, it will really affect the private sector kasi either teachers will jump to the private sector or the private sector cannot match the salaries and they would be forced to shut down.)

“That’s why what we will be doing is we will be looking into nonbasic wage benefits that we can give them para naman madagdagan ‘yung take-home nila,” Poa added.

(What we will be doing is we will be looking into nonbasic wage benefits that we can give them to add to their take-home pay.)

For now, the DepEd official said the agency is looking at giving several allowances to the teachers, but he refused to give more details, saying he does not want to preempt the studies into the matter.

“For the immediate, that is the thrust para matugunan din natin yung mga teachers,” he said.

(For the immediate, that is the thrust to help the teachers.)

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