Wage hike for teachers not a priority – DBM chief

MANILA, Philippines — The proposal to double the salaries of public school teachers will have to wait until the completion of the last tranche of salary adjustments under the Salary Standardization Law (SSL), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said yesterday.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, meanwhile, said all professionals working in government must get the same increase as he expressed support for the proposal to raise teachers’ salaries. This is following the signing of the law that doubles the salaries of military and uniformed personnel (MUP).

But the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition, through its chairman Benjo Basas, welcomed the directive of President Duterte for the concerned agencies to find ways to give teachers a pay hike.

In a press briefing at the DBM, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the government need not immediately implement the doubling of public school teachers’ salaries as they still have pending salary increases under Executive Order 201, series of 2016 or the SSL.

“There (are) still two years to go for the SSL. There’s about 15 to 16 percent increase in the salaries of teachers and there will be another round next year. So I think the best time to see all the salary adjustment is after,” Diokno said.

Diokno added increasing teachers’ salaries by two-fold currently does not fall under the priorities of the government.

“That is not our priority at this time. Our priority is the BBB (Build, Build, Build) and the social protection (programs),” he said.

In the meantime, Diokno said the DBM would tap a third party or the private sector to conduct a study on the viability of the proposal.

Citing current DBM estimates, the budget chief said doubling the salary of 687,229 teachers nationwide would mean about P500 billion of the government’s budget would be allocated for teachers’ salaries alone.

“So I think we have to study that very carefully,” Diokno said.

Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones earlier said she is not against the salary increase for teachers, but noted that it would cost the government as much as P350 billion per year.

Under Executive Order 201, series of 2016, signed by then-president Benigno Aquino III, there are four tranches of salary increases for government and military personnel.

The third tranche was implemented this January, with the DBM allocating P24 billion for the increase of salaries of 1.2 million government personnel. The fourth and final tranche will be implemented next year.

According to DepEd, the gross basic salary of teachers will go up to P20,179 while their take-home pay will rise to P20,012.89 this 2018 with the implementation of the third tranche, plus the impact of the tax reform law.

This is higher than last year’s level of P19,620 gross salary and P17,220.86 take-home pay. – With Janvic Mateo