Cayetano leads calls for better compensation for teachers

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano is urging the government to heed Filipino teachers’ demand for a more reasonable salary increase and additional compensation package.

He echoed the call of public school teachers on Monday (October 5) during the celebration of the World Teachers’ Day when they protested the government’s decision to grant only a 20-percent salary adjustment for educators and government employees.

Cayetano said he shared the sentiments expressed by Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) President Benjamin Valbuena who described the proposed increase “like giving alms to government employees.”

Cayetano said a substantial adjustment in the compensation and benefits of public school teachers is needed to allow them to reap the benefits of the country’s growing economy.

Like Valbuena, the senator lamented that the projected pay hike, to be given in four tranches, will only effectively grant the teachers five percent of the current P18,549 annually, or an increase of only P900 per year.

Under Cayetano’s Senate Bill No. 94, educators would receive an increase of at least P10,000.

“Educators play an important role in our society,” Cayetano stressed. “Let’s make their lives better by giving them the proper support that they deserve and need.”

SB 94 proposes to grant public school teachers P9,000 in additional compensation in the form of allowances and other remuneration from local school board funds, apart from the proposed P1,000 annual medical allowance and additional bonus to answer for the unpaid benefits granted by the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers.

“If government wants to create real change in the lives of our teachers, we need to provide them with a more generous compensation package so they would have a better standard of living,” Cayetano concluded. ##