ANGARA LAUDS DUTERTE'S RESOLVE TO GIVE TEACHERS PAY HIKE

Senator Sonny Angara lauded President Duterte's fresh announcement to increase the salary of public school teachers across the country and expressed hope that the pay adjustment would be equivalent or close to the rate he has been pushing since 2016.

"We are happy that we're in the same boat with the President in terms of providing our public school teachers a salary that is commensurate to their value to our society," Angara said.

"Our teachers may have one of the hardest jobs with the smallest monetary reward, thus giving them a reasonable raise would help them feel more appreciated and understand why they wanted the job in the first place," he added.

President Duterte renewed his promise on Thursday to increase the take-home pay of public school teachers, saying it could finally happen in 2019. He, however, did not mention how much the increase would be, but it was definitely on top of the fourth and last tranche of salary increases for all government workers to be implemented this year.

Last year, the President also vowed to raise the salary of teachers after the basic pay of the military and the police had been doubled.

Angara has been pushing for teachers' salary hike since he was a member of the Lower House representing the lone district of Aurora province.

In June 2016, he filed Senate Bill No. 135 which sought to adjust the minimum salary grade level of teachers from Salary Grade 11 to 19, or double their current monthly base pay of P20,179 to P42,099.

Angara believed the pay hike would attract more qualified and competent educators to teach in public schools.

"Our teachers are considered to be the heart of the educational system. The government needs to give priority to their welfare and interests," Angara pointed out. "Definitely, this would lead to an improvement in the quality of education in our public school system."

Angara, vice chair of the Senate Committee on Finance tasked to sponsor the 2019 budget of the Commission on Higher Education and state colleges and universities (SUCs), also pushed for the allocation of P2.9 billion to fund the job promotion of faculty members of SUCs across the country.

Such funding aims to implement National Budget Circular (NBC) 461, a system of evaluation and promotion for SUC faculty members that was supposed to be given in full in 2017.

No budget, however, has been allocated for NBC 461 Cycle 7 (2013-2016) because of the moratorium imposed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). Funding for SUC faculty promotion was again excluded in the P3.757-trillion proposed budget the DBM submitted to Congress for consideration.

Around 35,000 faculty members stand to benefit from the funding of NBC 461.