By Annika Gwyneth M. Chua and Justine Kirk J. Santos A BILL filed on 2013 which will double the monthly base pay of public school teachers is still under talks in Senate after more than three years. Senate Bill No. 61, also known as the “Act Upgrading the Minimum Salary Grade Level of Teachers from Salary Grade 11 to 19” is a bill passed by Sen. Sonny Angara on July 25, 2013 that aims to increase public school teachers’ minimum salary from approximately P18, 549 to P33, 859. “As we celebrate our teachers’ role in the society and nation building—most especially as molders of our children’s future—we should also give priority to the welfare of our hardworking teacher,” Sen. Angara once said in 2015.
Rowena Eusebio, a public school teacher in Bagong Nayon IV Elementary School in Antipolo, said she was grateful for the bill but disappointed with former president Aquino’s administration when public teachers only received less than 20 percent of their supposed P2,500 increase in salary. “We were given a salary increase of P 2,500, however, it was staggered and we only [got] P500 per year, including taxes, so that’s just around P350. It’s as if they treated us like beggars,” Eusebio told The Echo Today in an online interview. Gloria Esteban, also from Bagong Nayon IV Elementary School, added the proposed bill will guarantee that teachers will stay and work for the country. “Teachers will no longer be called ‘Longganiza expert’ or ‘Avon dealer’ if this will happen. They can give quality time for their families or personal life as well as to their pupils for they know they are financially stable. They would rather choose to stay here instead of going abroad,” she said. Revelita Miner, a public school teacher from Guiguinto Central School in Bulacan told The Echo Today that they still provide quality education for students despite receiving low salaries. “The salary we receive now is actually enough if you only have a small family, but if you have a larger family, you may not be able to provide for them sufficiently,” Miner said. E
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