THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers pressed Congress to heed teachers’ appeal for bigger budgetary support in the Bayanihan 3 measure.

Various teachers’ groups, associations and faculty clubs wrote to their respective House representatives to call for a P1,500 monthly internet allowance provision in the Bayanihan 3.

“We’re calling on our duly-elected legislators to represent the interest of teachers and learners by championing education in the Bayanihan 3 deliberations. We too have been direly hit by the pandemic and we need the government’s support now more than ever,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

He urged lawmakers to heed teachers’ call for a P1,500 monthly internet allowance.

When Congress reopened in mid-May, over 17,000 public school teachers petitioned for the said allowance. ACT submitted the petition to Speaker Lord Alan Velasco, Appropriations Committee Chairman Eric Yap, and Bayanihan 3 bill principal author Representative Stella Luz Quimbo.

The original bill proposed P30 billion for education, but the budget was reduced to only P5.6 billion in the substitute bill. The provision was further reduced to P4 billion in the version passed by the plenary on Tuesday, P3 billion of which will go to learners’ gadgets and P1 billion for 6 months-worth of connectivity expense allowance for 950,000 teachers.

The new version no longer included a provision for teachers’ laptops.

“P4 billion out of the P405.6 billion budget for Bayanihan 3, that’s just around 1 percent! Surely our legislators can figure out a way to significantly augment the allocation for education. If Congress managed to provide P54 billion for military pension under this bill, then they can very well give more to a basic social service that caters to millions of Filipino youth and education workers,” Basilio argued.