Public school teachers to get P6,000 pay hike

MANILA, Philippines — Public school teachers will receive a salary increase of P6,000 in the new four-year pay adjustment program in the government, a leader of the House of Representatives said yesterday.

“For the Teacher I regular position, the pay hike is from the 2019 level of about P21,000 to P27,000 in 2023. That is P6,000 in additional pay prudently phased-in over just four years, so that the national budget can afford it,” Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero said. 

He said Congress did its best to give state workers a new round of salary increase, “knowing the funds are limited and salaries are not its only high priority.”

Romero, who represents party-list group 1-Pacman, suggested that teachers be given an additional allowance for transportation and other expenses to improve their take-home pay.

He added that at about 900,000, teachers comprise the single biggest sector in the bureaucracy.

The new compensation adjustment program is contained in Bill 5712, which the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading on Wednesday. Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte, and Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, who is appropriations committee chairman, are the authors of the bill.

The Senate has passed its own version of the measure.

If President Duterte could sign the proposed law before yearend, the envisioned salary increase will take effect on Jan. 1 next year.

By 2023, when the new four-year pay hike program ends, government personnel will have received salary increases for eight consecutive years. 

This year, state workers received the last of four annual adjustments under Executive Order No. 201, which then president Benigno Aquino III issued in February 2016 after Congress failed to pass the proposed Salary Standardization Law 4 due to disagreement on indexing military and police pension on the then proposed salary increase.

Under the bill, the lowest pay (Salary Grade 1) in the bureaucracy would go up by about P500 next year, from P11,068 under EO 201 to P11,551. This would increase to P12,034 on the second year, P12,517 on the third, and P13,000 on the fourth.

The minimum salary for public school teachers, who hold Salary Grade 11, will be adjusted from P20,751 under the Aquino order to P22,316 in 2020, P23,877 in 2021, P25,439 in 2022, and P27,000 in 2023.

On the other hand, the President’s pay (Salary Grade 33) will go up from P399,739 to P431,718 over the four-year implementation period.

Salary Grade 30, which is compensation level of Cabinet members, senators and congressmen, will increase from P196,206 to P211,902 up to 2023.

The rate increases were based on a study conducted by the Department of Budget and Management.

Leftist lawmakers expressed dismay over what they described as the “measly” adjustments approved by the House and the Senate.

These are not a fulfillment of President Duterte’s promise to increase the salary of civilian personnel of the government, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said.

He said the P22,000 to P27,000 pay for public school teachers is much less than the P30,000 monthly salary the President had granted to soldiers and policemen.