SENATOR Panfilo Lacson on Thursday said that increasing the basic pay of teachers is “doable.”

He said that the national budget has to be recalibrated in order to allocate the funds necessary to achieve the goal of increasing the basic pay of teachers.

The senator pointed out that through judicious spending, the government can raise the pay of teachers and nurses to the same level being received by the uniformed personnel.

“Kaya pong gawin pero hindi mabibigla. Pero ang masasabi lang namin dahil pagkalaki-laki nga ng ating national budget na hindi nagagamit, puwede pong ma-implement ‘yan. Doable po ‘yan na ‘yung suweldo ng mga nurse at suweldo ng mga teacher maipapantay sa suweldo ng pulis, ng military, at saka…lahat ng mga nasa uniformed services pati ‘yung Philippine Coast Guard,” Lacson said.

To prove that he can deliver on this promise, Lacson shared that he played a role in finding the P3-billion fund needed to augment the base pay of entry-level government nurses to salary grade 15.

“Kasi natiyempo nagba-budget deliberation kami noon. Ako po ‘yung nakahanap ng P3 billion para agad-agad maimplementa ‘yung dagdag na sweldo ng mga nurse. Kasi ako ang mahilig magbusisi sa national budget. Lagi akong nag-i-scrutinize, tinitingnan ko ‘yung mga pwedeng ilipat sa ahensya tulad nito kaya agad na-implement ‘yon,” he said.

“So, lahat ng paraan ginagawa natin para kung hindi man maipasok sa suweldo, sa mga allowances man lang o mga risk allowance, hazard pay may dagdag kaya umabot po ng P35,000. So, kaya po ‘yan basta’t masinop lang tayo sa pagpapasa o kaya pag-iimplementa ng ating national budget,” Lacson said.