“UNTIL WHEN?” This is the question of public school teachers after the President’s recent message to them to “wait a little longer” for the promised doubling of their pay. Teachers are reportedly worried as the President said no budget is currently available to implement the promise.
Considering that budget preparations are done annually and the recently ratified 2019 budget does not reflect the President’s vow to teachers, public school teachers are understandably worried that the President is reneging from his clear pronouncement earlier that the pay hike for teachers will be fulfilled within the year.
However, this need not be the case. The President has the power to issue an executive order to make possible the realization of the said promise at the soonest possible time. He can veto the pork barrel insertions in the 2019 budget and his executive order can push congress to work on a supplementary budget when the legislative sessions resume after elections.
The President must make good on his commitment to have a serious dialogue with teachers. They prefer that he to talk to them about the pay hike as the President and not as the campaign manager of the administration’s slate for the upcoming elections.
It is discomfiting that the President issued his latest message at a campaign rally of the administration’s senatotial slate in Cebu City.
The public school teachers’ demands may once again be exploited to win votes for administration candidates, only for the teachers to be left hung out to dry after the elections.
Teachers have reasons to have misgivings over the President’s mention of salary increase as a promise in the PDP-Laban campaign rally. They are reasonably wary as President Duterte made the same vow to all 800,000 of us in his 2016 bid for presidency. Three years later, no such meaningful increase has been implemented.
Public school teachers deserve better from the government.
