A TEACHERS’ group blasted President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive on Thursday to purchase 15 Black Hawk helicopters for the military, saying it comes at a time when teachers continue to appeal for internet allowance for distance learning.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers staged a rally outside the Department of Budget and Management office on Friday to press its demand for a supplemental budget for education and funding for education workers’ benefits.

“It is verging on immoral to be stocking up on a war arsenal while our people reel in a health and economic crisis. What we need are vaccines, jobs, aid, food and basic social services such as education,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

“This is a sharp slap in the face of all our teachers and learners who were already battered by huge distance learning costs as the Duterte government continues to renege on its duty to provide for the needs of education,” he added.

Previous reports on government contracts to purchase Black Hawk helicopters show that a unit can cost up to $15 million. The planned purchase of 15 units can cost the country up to $225 million or P11.25 billion.

“This amount is five times bigger than the measly P2.5 billion government allocation for the vaccination program for 2021. It can provide all our one million public school teachers with seven months of P1,500 monthly internet allowance to help facilitate distance learning and avert the learning crisis,” Basilio said.

“We call out the Duterte government for its grave funding mis priorities. Why is the government squandering the people’s money on senseless wars when our biggest adversary today is the crisis that wreaks havoc on all aspects of our national life?” he added.

Basilio lamented that the dismal funding given to the education sector this year will only perpetuate the shortages in modules and teaching and learning technologies and deprive education workers of just benefits.

“We urge the DBM to draw up a supplemental budget for education if the government intends to salvage the millions of youth who are now at risk of dropping out due to the inaccessibility and poor quality of the ill-equipped distance learning. We also demand for the protection of the education frontliners’ welfare through the provision of ample and just benefits,” he said.

The group reiterated its call for P1,500 monthly internet allowance for teachers, the grant of P10,000 Service Recognition Incentive and the release of their 2019 Performance-based bonus.