Senators Sonny Angara, Franklin Drilon, Sherwin Gatchalian, Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Nancy Binay, are among the list of lawmakers who have all filed bills that aim to increase the salary of teachers or provide additional benefits to educators.
Just recently, we have published about Sen. Ralph Recto’s bill which seeks to increase teachers’ chalk allowance from P3,500 to P10,000.
Despite the filing of all these bills, nothing has yet to succeed in becoming a law that’s why the many teachers are skeptical about the realization of any of these measures.
To address this concern, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri assures that the salary increase of teachers will be prioritized by the Senate in the 18th Congress.
In an interview, Zubiri says, “As your Majority floor leader, I guarantee we will take it up as priority measure for the first few months of this Congress.”
According to Zubiri, the delay in the approval of teachers’ pay hike was because the House of Representatives failed to submit the counterpart measures from the lower chamber.
With this, Zubiri said that the Senate will work on the measures and pass it “as soon as possible”.
“What we’re trying to do is maybe we’ll approve it early on. We have already the commitment of many senators, including the new senators,” Zubiri said.
“Matagal na po na namin itong pinaglalaban, ang pagtaas po ng sweldo ng mga teachers sa public school sector,” he added.
Several senators especially the new ones have already committed to working on the salary increase of teachers and President Rodrigo R. Duterte also assured the teachers that the increase in their salary will be approved.
With all these bills, promises, and the emerging efforts from our lawmakers, it seems that in the next couple of months, teachers will finally be granted with their long-awaited pay hike; something the country’s educators really deserve.
