Uniformed Personnel's Salary Hike, Adding Insult To Injury

Rep. Luz Ilagan of Gabriela Women’s Party today joined around 3,000 public school teachers from all over Metro Manila and neighboring provinces in a march to Batasang Pambansa to reiterate the need for P9,000 increase in their salaries. 

"Our teachers' request for additional compensation has been painfully snubbed by the Arroyo government for years. Now, they are adding insult to injury by proposing to raise the military and police personnel’s salaries far higher than the teachers’, Rep. Ilagan said.

According to the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, the Department of Budget and Management and the Civil Service Commission’s proposed salary hike for uniformed personnel is unfair since a mere cadet in the Philippine National Police Academy will be paid 22% higher than a public school teacher or the same as the basic salary of an Associate Professor I - a Ph. D. holder - in our state universities and colleges.

Ilagan, together with Gabriela Party-list Rep. Liza Maza, Anakpawis Party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano and Bayan Muna Party-list Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casino, authored House Bill 4734 or an “Act providing additional compensation for public school teachers”.

The bill was consolidated with the Salary Standardization Law III which will give teachers a mere P4,645 increase or a basic salary of P16,671. This, according to Ilagan is not enough, since the family living wage is P27,510.

“If the SSL3 is signed into law, teachers will suffer from a gap of P10,839.” #