HUNDREDS of public school teachers who are members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers and ACT NCR Union staged a noise barrage along Quezon Avenue in Quezon City on Sunday to demand an increase in their salaries amid the worsening economic crisis.

The teachers called for an immediate salary hike and tax cuts on goods saying that they lose about P4,000 of their monthly salary to steep inflation.

Based on ACT’s computation, the real value of the salaries of 92 percent of public school teachers who occupy Teacher I, II and III positions eroded by P3,862 to P4,524 with inflation rate hitting 7.7 percent last month.

The Teacher I position which receives P25,439 now only has a real salary worth P21,577; Teacher II salary of P27,608 is only worth P23,416; and Teacher III pay of P29,798 is only equivalent to P25,274.

“Naturingan kaming propesyunal pero malinaw na siyam sa bawat 10 guro ang sumusuweldo nang mas mababa kaysa P33,000 kada buwan na antas ng nakabubuhay na suweldo. Gutom at lalong pagkalubog sa utang ang inaabot ng aming mga pamilya kaya’t talagang napapanahon at makatarungan lamang na itaas na ang sweldo ng mga guro at lahat ng mga manggagawa sa pribado at publikong sektor,” Vladimer Quetua, the group’s chairperson, said.

Quetua urged the government to rechannel the budgets for infrastructure projects and the intelligence funds and use it to increase the salaries of rank-and-file employees.

“If only the Marcos government would rechannel hundreds of billions allocated to corruption-prone infrastructure projects, and confidential and intelligence funds, it can grant its rank-and-file employees with substantial salary increase. If it would collect more taxes from the billionaires, including the unpaid real property taxes of the president, it can raise enough funds even if the VAT on oil and essential goods were scrapped,” Quetua said.

Meanwhile, ACT NCR President Ruby Ana Bernardo called on the government to scrap the value added tax on oil and essential goods.

“Quota na sa pagtitipid at pagtitiis ang mga guro at mamamayan. Panahon na para ang gobyerno naman ang magsakripisyo para sa atin. It is downright inappropriate and immoral for the government to be cashing in on our hardships as they collect more value-added tax each time prices of fuel and basic commodities increase. We call on the Marcos government to bring down the prices of goods and bring relief to the people by scrapping the VAT on oil and essential goods,” Bernardo said.