MANILA — A teachers’ organization on Wednesday outlined five major “demands” as World Teachers' Day approaches, foremost among these a call for a substantial salary increase for teachers.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) condemned the current wages under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as “barya, barat, at makunat (stingy)."

ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua cited Executive Order No. 64, which only increases teachers' salaries by P50 a day.

"Dapat ito ay nakabubuhay pero ang...sahod ng teachers talagang barya. Nanawagan tayo ng 50,000 na sahod ng mga teachers, pero lumalabas sa Executive Order na 'to, 50 pesos lamang ang makakamit ng teachers a day..Libu-libo talaga ang nag-aabroad dahil dito," Quetua said at a press conference.

(The teachers' salaries are truly meager. We are calling for a salary of P50,000 for teachers, yet it turns out that under this executive order, teachers can only expect to earn P50 a day. These wages really force thousands to go abroad.)

HEAVIER WORKLOAD

Aside from the salary increase, ACT’s other key demands are a higher education budget with at least 6% of the country’s GDP, scrapping the MATATAG curriculum, adequate funding for new and expanded benefits, and ending all forms of attacks on teachers.

According to ACT, teachers work the same six-hour shifts yet have to handle more students and classes daily.

"Sa halip na mag-hire ng maraming teachers, pinabigat ‘yong workload ng mga teachers," said former ACT Teaachers Party-List representative Antonio Tinio.

(Instead of hiring more teachers, they have increased the workload of the existing teachers.)

They also noted that the lack of a conducive environment for teachers, the need for major classrooms repairs, unfulfilled commitments to continuing professional development, and violations of labor rights continue to drive educators out of the profession.

"Kaya po isa sa major demand ng Alliance of Concerned Teachers na inihahapag para sa pagdiriwang ng World Teachers' Day is para sa gobyerno na tugunan, aksyunan 'yung mga insidente ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao, paglabag sa labor rights," said ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.

(One of the major demands of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers presented for the celebration of World Teachers' Day is for the government to address and take action on incidents of human rights violations and violations of labor rights.)

The group also raised concerns about the Department of Education's proposed 2025 budget, which they claim will not address the backlog of nearly 100,000 classrooms or the need to hire an additional 150,000 teachers.

Some of the legislative agenda of the group—which is also fielding a party-list in the upcoming 2025 elections—includes increasing the personal relief allowance to P5,000 from P2,000 to keep teachers from resorting to predatory loans as prices continue to rise.

"'Yang kasalukuyang P2,000, 15 years na po 'yang hindi ginagalaw. So may panukalang batas tayo na gawin itong P5,000," Tinio said.

(The current P2,000 has not been adjusted for 15 years. Therefore, we have a proposed bill to increase it to P5,000.)

ELECTION HONORARIA

With the elections approaching and teachers set to work at polling centers, there is also a push to raise the election honorarium for teachers from P10,000 to P15,000 and eliminating the tax on this amount.

Also included in the group’s agenda is seeking accountability for alleged corruption within the Department of Education.

"Kung vice president ang involved dito, nauna na ang ACT partylist sa pagdeklara na impeachable ang offense na ito," Tinio said.

(If the vice president is involved here, the ACT partylist has already declared this to be an impeachable offense.)

To press their demands, teachers are set to march to Malacañan on October 4, the eve of World Teachers’ Day.