Teachers to protest for wages Monday

Alliance of Concerned Teachers stage a protes in this file photo. ACT has threatened to refuse to go on election duty for the Oct. 28 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections unless they are properly compensated. PHOTO FROM ACT-TEACHERS.COM

MANILA, Philippines—Some 100 public school teachers in the National Capital Region are planning protest actions on the first day of classes on Monday to demand higher wages.

The teachers, led by the militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), warned of  “sustained heightening and escalating forms of action” that could peak in a “mass leave” if the government does not act favorably on their request for an increase in salary.

Benjie Valbuena, national president of ACT, said the teachers would converge on Mendiola in Manila at 3 p.m., where a short program would highlight what he called President Aquino’s “insensitivity” to the demands of teachers.

ACT, which claims 7,000 teacher-members in the NCR, is seeking an increase in teachers’ entry-level salary, from P18,549 to P25,000, with the corresponding adjustments to the salaries of more senior teachers.

Late dispersal

Valbuena said the protest action was expected to end at 4 p.m., unless the teachers and their sympathizers who would join the protest arrive late. “If that’s the case, we might disperse at 5 p.m.,” he added.

He said similar actions would be held simultaneously in other places, such as Bacolod, Cebu and Davao.

Valbuena denied that there would be a disruption of classes as a result of the protest, adding that the teachers who would join teach their classes in the morning.

He warned that the protest actions were an “opening salvo” to a “mass leave” the group was planning should the government refuse to heed its demands.  All 17 divisions in the NCR, he said, would be affected, if such was the case.

Dance exercises

Another group, the Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC), said it would stage “dance protests” the day before Monday to prepare teachers physically for the school year ahead and also press for an increase in their salaries.

The TDC has asked for a P10,000 increase, insisting that its demand was based on the recommendation of the 1991 Congressional Commission on Education that public school teachers  be given a minimum monthly salary of P28,000.

The group said it would hold two organized dance exercises—one at Rajah Sulayman Park in Malate, Manila, and another on the grounds of the Tacloban City Hall in Tacloban City, Leyte.

The activity in Manila—where the group said that around 300 teachers were expected to participate—will start at 7 a.m., while the one in Tacloban at 5 a.m.

Selfless service

Mercy Dumaging of TDC-Malabon said the dance protest was to “prepare (the teachers’) bodies physically for the tasks on Monday and the entire school year 2014-2015. ”

Cristy Diomaro of TDC-Leyte, for her part, said the activity was “proof that teachers are ready to go back to work and despite the hardships and sacrifices, (they) are willing to render (their) selfless service to the children who were the hardest hit by the devastation last year.”

“This is our commitment to our youth,” Dumaging said.

The TDC added that its members in the NCR would read poems, sing songs and hold theatrical performances on the streets, but did not say when they would be held.

“The schools will open once again and the teachers, again will be on the frontlines to ensure that education services will be delivered to our youth,” said Benjo Basas, the group’s national chair.

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