THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers on Thursday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to ease the financial burden of teachers by giving them a monthly Internet allowance for distance learning.

Wearing heart-shaped face masks, members of the group trooped to Malacañang Palace to bring some 15,000 signatures of public school teachers formally asking the President to grant their demand for a monthly P1,500 internet allowance.

“Our teachers’ meager salaries could no longer take the debilitating costs of distance learning, which should have been the government’s responsibility in the first place. We call on President Duterte to finally end our teacher’s woes on mounting internet bills and order for the provision of internet allowance to teachers,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

Basilio said that the signatures were gathered through an online petition in February. More signatures are being gathered and these too, will be presented to the President.

“While the government is saving a lot from reduced operating expenses with the work-from-home set up, and squandering billions on war machines and pampering the armed forces, it is plainly unfair to pass on to teachers the duty of funding education,” Basilio said.

ACT estimated that the government needs roughly P18 billion to provide almost 1 million public school teachers with monthly P1,500 internet allowance this year.

It pointed out that the amount is smaller than the P19 billion allocation for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which it accused of promoting red-tagging and “state terrorism”.

“Internet connectivity is vital to education continuity amid the pandemic. The grant of our demand is a basic gauge of the government’s commitment to the youth’s education in this time of crisis. Continuously denying us of this basic need only exposes the Duterte regime’s lack of genuine concern for our youth’s and nation’s future,” Basilio said.