President Marcos set to sign bill doubling teaching supply allowance

CEBU, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to approve a bill increasing teaching supplies allowance from P5,000 to P10,000 starting School Year (SY) 2025-2026 in a ceremonial signing into law on Monday.

This was confirmed through an invitation sent by the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office to ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro.

The ceremonial re-enactment of the signing into law of the "Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act" is set for June 3, 2024 at the Malacañan Palace in Manila. The letter was signed by PLLO Secretary Mark Llandro Mendoza.

"After a long fought battle to increase the Teaching Supplies Allowance (or chalk allowance) of teachers, the 'Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act' is now a law, hiking the current P5,000 teaching supplies allowance to P10,000," said the party in Filipino.

"This law was first filed by the ACT Teachers Party-list in 2011 and was brought to the forefront for years before being officially passed into law."

Teachers have long been clamoring for the said increase since the current allowance couldn't cover all the expenses needed to buy enough chalk, erasers, forms and other classroom supplies. As a result, educators have been taking out money from their own pockets.

ACT party-list spearheaded the most recent measure in the House of Representatives, which was later on passed in December 2023, with their approved version providing for P7,500 for SY 2024-2025 and P10,000 for SY 2025-2026 onwards.

Its counterpart bill in the Senate was likewise passed in May 2023. However, only P5,000 has been granted for SY 2024-2025 in the reconciled Senate Bill 1964 and House Bill 9682 of the Bicameral Conference Committee.

It was officially transmitted to the Office of the President last May 3, 2024.

In a separate statement, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines attributed the bill's passage to the tireless efforts of teachers and progressive supporters.

"Teachers have long been spending their own money for school supplies. Yearly, we take out a huge amount from our own pockets to fix classrooms. This includes teaching aid costs that we use for the benefit of children," said Vladimer Quetua, ACT chairperson. — (FREEMAN)