Act RegionOne

We stand with Teacher Maricel!

We strongly condemn the malicious imputations and intimidation directed by the officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) against Teacher Maricel Hererra, president of the faculty club of Bacoor National Highschool in Cavite, after her exposé of their comfort room-converted faculty room drew public attention during school opening.

We denounce DepEd Secretary Briones’ lie that the case is an isolated one, further, her contemptuous remark that teachers chose to stay on the shabby faculty area because it is ‘more dramatic and touching.’ Equally, we condemn the school principal’s threats of suing Ms. Herrera, allegedly for ‘disparaging the reputation’ of the education agency and the school.

What Ms. Herrera is being made to suffer right now is a clear case of union repression and violation of her academic freedom. She is being shamed and punished for speaking truth to power, a courageous act to stand for the welfare of teachers who were plopped in a dismal condition, but the powers-that-be took offense and now threatens her employment.

However distressing, converting comfort rooms to faculty rooms is not uncommon to many public schools such as in Bagong Silangan Elementary School in Quezon City, Calderon Highschool in Manila and many others. This situation is just one of the many indications of the grave facility shortage in public education. Bringing it out in the open is simple truth-telling and is aimed at calling the attention of the authorities to address the education crisis, a citizen’s basic right in a democracy. If sincere in their duties, the authorities could have simply responded to address the issue. Choosing to take offense on the exposé is putting one’s ego and pride over the interest of the sector and public he/she is mandated to serve. Punishing the truth-teller is pure vindictiveness and abuse of authority.

The Department of Education only has itself to blame that they were put in bad light when the government’s inefficiencies were exposed. The deficiencies are of the government’s doing and not of the teachers’. The agency, though, seems to not be getting any nearer to squarely confronting the problem. It turns a blind eye on the dominantly dismal state of public schools, only choosing to see the very rare state-of-the-art classrooms it exhibits for its touted 21st century education, and is lulled in its illusion that the school opening is ‘so far, so good.’

In this case, more Teacher Maricels are needed to jolt the government from its slumber, and come out we will. Armed with truth and a good grasp of our rights to free expression and self-organization we shall carry on the causes of the education sector for the sake of our youth to whom rests the hope of our nation.

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Ano pong tingin ninyo dito?

Teachers, ano ang inyong opinyon?

DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones: They had their choice, they could hold office in the laboratory rooms but of course it is more dramatic, it is more touching if you hold it in the toilets.

Teacher Maricel Herrera of Bacoor NHS: Hindi po ito drama lang! Bakit hindi tanggapin na may problema, kulang ang pasilidad sa DepEd! Band aid solution ang paglipat sa laboratory o hall, ang kailangan natin ay sapat na mga pasilidad para sa g**o at mag-aaral.

PRESS STATEMENT: Sec. Briones declares “war” against lowly paid education personnel
Fight for our demand for salary increase and just benefits!

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) – Philippines strongly condemn the recent deduction from teachers’ and employees’ Net Take Home Pay (NTHP). The Department of Education (DepEd) violates its own DepEd Order No. 12, series of 2017 that states that the new threshold on NTHP of DepEd personnel shall be Four Thousand Pesos (P 4,000.00).

"We received a lot of reports from the National Capital Region and other regions wherein teachers and employees received only P200 to P1900 upon withdrawal of their salaries from the Automated Teller Machines. We demand that the ceiling of P4, 000.00 as their Net Take Home Pay (as per Gen. Appropriations Act of 2017) be maintained," said Mr. Benjamin Valbuena, ACT Philippines Chairperson.

Further, the order was inked through the hand of DepEd Sec. Leonor Briones last March 6, 2017. She should have weighed further the impact on classroom teachers the effect of the order. But then this pro-private sector DepEd secretary again displayed her uncaring stance with personnel within her own department! But for Sec. Briones, the best long-term solution to teachers’ over-borrowing is teaching teachers financial literacy. “We really have to institute financial literacy among our teachers,” she stressed. Teachers have to “make financial choices amongst themselves…it’s not as if the Department has created this problem and they are aware of this problem,” she ended.

Sec. Briones and President Rodrigo Duterte should understand that teachers and other education personnel are already in a cycle of indebtedness because of low salaries that does not even meet the standard cost of living inside the country. To be able to survive their families, education personnel have been victims of loan sharks.

No amount of measure of so called financial literacy as proposed by DepEd and quickly echoed by Mr. Benjo Basas of Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) will address the predicament of the personnel of the education sector. Dr. Liling Briones and Mr. Benjo Basas missed the whole point too. Salary Increase for both public and private school teachers is a pressing demand now more than ever!

Queuing loan payments and maintaining the NTHP will not solve the problem unless our salaries to a minimum will meet the very standard cost of living set by our government. Our salaries are simply not enough and because our demand for a just salary increase has been unattended, acquiring loans from both public and private lending institutions have been a” way of life” for the majority of the teaching and non-teaching personnel.

“If President Duterte can double the salaries of the military personnel in 2018, why can’t he do the same for the education sector and whole public sector for that matter? Mr. Benjie Valbuena intoned.

“Fellow teachers and public servants, we are under the attack of neoliberal reforms that maintain meager salary, deficient benefits, oppressive tax reform and rotting education system. We must act! Enough is enough!" concluded Mr. Valbuena. # # #

Scrap the illegal DepEd Order No. 38 S. 2017!
Implement the P4,000 Net Take Home Pay!

FIGHT FOR SALARY INCREASE!

Education International - Philippines: shining a light on a shadowy edu-business In a forum held at Manila City Polytechnic University, teacher unionists and students could gain first-hand information about the operations of the so-called Affordable Private Education Centers in their country.

Suportado ng hanay ng mga g**o at kawani ang DSWD Memorandum Circular No. 9! Panahon na upang tanggalin ang patronage system sa mga serbisyong panlipunan. Ibasura ang pork barrel system! Ideretso sa kamay ng mamamayan ang patas at maagap na serbisyong panlipunan!

World Teachers’ Day 5 October 2016
‘Valuing Teachers, Improving their Status’
World Teachers’ Day (WTD), held annually on 5 October, is an important event for the entire educational community. It is an opportunity to celebrate the teaching profession and to promote the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (1966), the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel (1997). These instruments define international standards for the teaching profession.
The theme for this year’s World Teachers’ Day is: “Valuing Teachers, Improving their Status”. This year’s event marks the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of Teachers. The Recommendation’s purpose to improve the professional status and working conditions of teachers is more urgent than ever. Evidence from EI research and other studies shows a decline in teacher status and conditions over the last few years, mainly due to:
Sub-standard teacher preparation programmes and the recruitment of unqualified personnel;
Infringements on academic freedom and professional autonomy;
Serious violations of teachers’ human and trade union rights; and
Poor salaries and working conditions, quite often less than those of professionals with comparable qualifications in other sectors.
This negative trend must be reversed. Governments and employers have an obligation to ensure that teachers are valued, honoured and respected. Valuing teachers and all education personnel should entail the provision of decent working conditions; well-resourced, safe and healthy working environments; trust; professional autonomy; academic freedom; high quality initial training and continuous professional development, among others.

18 August 2016
PRESS STATEMENT
Reference: Rep. France L. Castro

Rep. France Castro on DBM Sec. Diokno's anti-poor statement

Rep. France Castro of ACT Teachers Party-List denounced DBM Sec. Benjamin Diokno’s 'anti-poor statement’ when he said “there is no urgency” in giving salary increases to teachers and nurses, yesterday in an Anti-Poverty Summit in Davao. Castro is also dismayed after Sec. Diokno announced that only members of AFP and PNP will have a PhP 5,000 allowance and rice allowance every month starting September and assured that uniformed men’s salary increase be granted by January 2017.

“It’s really alarming that the secretary said this in an anti-poverty event considering that quality education and health services are components of the ‘war against poverty’ being waged by the current administration,” Castro said as she asserted that teachers and nurses play important roles in poverty alleviation.

Castro underscored the fact that teachers and nurses along with other government employees are burdened with the perennial increases of the price of basic commodities faced by cops and military.

The lawmaker emphasizes insufficiency of the PhP 19,077 current monthly salary of entry-level teachers amidst the rising cost of living. Researchers found that PhP 1,093 is required to support a family of 6 per day.

“Teachers only have PhP 3,500-6,000 to as net take home pay each month. This dire state of their financial capacity pushes them to get loans and even pawn their ATM accounts. Teachers had historically fallen trapped in this cycle of indebtedness,” Castro stressed.

Castro condemned this notion that the uniformed service ought to be first since all government employees are equally important in nation building.

The lawmaker also reminds Sec. Diokno of constitutional mandate Art. 14, Sec. 5, Par. 5 to “assign the highest budgetary priority to education and 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.” # # #

Rep. Antonio Tinio and Rep. France Castro of ACT Teachers Party-List files House Bill (HB) 56 in the 17th congress. The bill embodies our proposal for the salary increase of public school teachers and other government employees (the starting salary for non-teaching personnel is P16,000/month, for Teacher I is P25,000/month, and Instructor I in SUCs is P27,000/month). Plus the augment for Personnel Economic Assistance Relief (PERA) to P5,000/month.

Through our collective action, let us all work together for this bill to be enacted and made into law.

"Kaya naman humihingi ako ng suporta saking mga kapwa kongresista na maipasa ang panukalang batas bilang 56 na naglalayong magkaroon ng umento sa sahod bilang panimulang sweldo na P16,000 sa mga non-teaching personnel, P25,000 para sa Teacher I, at sa mga Instructor I sa kolehiyo na mula SG 12 ay maging 16." sipi sa unang Privilege speech ni Rep. France Cstro

House Bill 56

AN ACT INCREASING THE MINIMUM SALARIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS AND OTHER GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND AUGMENTING THE PERSONNEL ECONOMIC RELIEF ALLOWANCE

Principal Author/s: TINIO, ANTONIO L.; CASTRO, FRANCE L.; CASILAO, ARIEL B.;

Main Referral: APPROPRIATIONS

Status: Pending with the Committee on APPROPRIATIONS since 2016-07-26