DAVAO CITY — After soldiers and policemen, public school teachers will also get a salary increase once the economy improves, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said Friday evening.
“Remember, when the economy improves, you are next to get a salary increase — but in increments since there are so many of you. You are five or seven times more than our soldiers,” Duterte told more than 6,000 elementary school principals during the 37th Principals Training and Development Program and National Board Conference at the SMX Convention Center here.
The President’s announcement elicited applause from the audience.
Duterte said he understands the life of teachers since his mother, Soledad Duterte, was a public school teacher.
He noted that teachers face a difficult life because of their low salary that many resort to pawning their ATM cards.
Even his mother, he said, also loaned money when she was a teacher just to provide for the family.
Duterte, however, explained the need to increase first the salary of men in uniform due to the dangers they face in fulfilling his campaign promise to wage a war on illegal drugs, criminality and terrorism.
But teachers will be next to get a raise, he said.
It may be recalled that Education Secretary Leonor Briones last year signed Department Order 55 (2017) or the “Revised Guidelines on the Implementation of PHP4,000 Net Take Home Pay for Department of Education Personnel”.
The order prioritizes loan deductions due the Government Service Insurance System and the Home Development Mutual Fund, and ensures that teachers would have no less than PHP4,000 net in their monthly take-home pay.
Those holding Teacher 1 to Teacher 3 positions reportedly receive a gross pay of PHP20,000 to PHP25,000, which decreases to only PHP15,000 to PHP18,000 after deducting taxes, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG contributions. (PNA)