SENATOR Risa Hontiveros has filed a measure seeking a P15,000 across-the-board increase in the basic monthly salary of teachers and employees in public basic education.

In her Senate Bill 2743 or the proposed Dagdag Sahod for Public Basic Education Teachers and Employees Act, Hontiveros stressed that the Constitution mandates that the State shall ensure that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Despite this mandate, the senator stressed that the salaries of public-school teachers, including non­-teaching personnel, remain meager considering their roles in and contributions to education services delivery as a public and common good.

Under the Salary Standardization Law of 2019, teachers receive a little over P6,000 increase, spread across four years, or about P 1,500 increase annually, which is insufficient to adapt to the current cost of living and to cope with continually rising prices of basic commodities and services.

With these salary levels, some public school teachers opted for better income opportunities abroad, moonlighting as part-time teachers in private educational institutions and/or freelancing as home-based tutors.

“Over the years, various teachers’ unions and organizations have urged the government to provide decent pay and substantial salary increases to teachers, including non-teaching personnel,” Hontiveros said in her explanatory note.