Teachers & Government Workers Press For Pay Hike In Rally
TEACHERS & GOVERNMENT WORKERS – Over 3,000 public school teachers and workers from the government will hold a rally on the eve of “World Teacher’s Day”.
According to a report from Inquirer, this is to protest President Rodrigo Duterte’s “defeaning silence” regarding the salary increase promised to them. The government had already allocated P32 billion to cover the pay raise.
However, the group said that this would barely cover for the P30,000 entry-level salary they have long called for. The rally would be led by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT).
ACT is the country’s largest teachers union. As per the report, thousands of protesters are to be expected to participate in Mendiola, Manila.
There would also be protests held across the country. “Hundreds of teachers have been participating in building a human ‘30K’ formation in their schools”, said Joselyn Martinez.
Martinez is the ACT national chairperson. She also added that the rally indicates a growing unity of steadfastness among teachers to demand just pay.
In lieu of this, Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda stated that Duterte would allocate P110 billion over the next three years. This already included the P32 billion in the 2020 budget.
However, details on the allocation still remained unclear. ACT leaders debated that the 2020 allocation should be evenly distributed amongst the 1.5 million workers of the public sectors.
This would amount to a mere P49 daily increase in their salary. Adding to this, entry-level teachers receive a monthly salary of P20,754.
Economist says that this is well below the needed requirements to meet basic needs. With this, Martinez stated that the individuals tasked to fulfill the primary duty to deliver social services are denied decent pay.
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