Tuesday, June 10, 2008 Teachers ask for higher pay
A DAY before Tuesday's opening of classes, militant teachers staged a protest at the Mendiola Bridge near Malacañang demanding higher pay.
Members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) started massing at the area at past 10 a.m. Monday after marching from the University of Sto. Tomas at España Road.
ACT chairman Antonio Tinio led close to a hundred of teachers in the protest but they were blocked by Manila policemen from proceeding towards Malacañang.
Mendiola Bridge is considered off-limits to rallies and demonstrations except on holidays and weekends.
Early in the morning, Manila Police District Director Roberto Rosales said he has already ordered Civil Disturbance Management Unit policemen to the site to secure the area and the rallyists.
Tinio said they have applied with the City Government for a rally permit but it was not acted upon.
According to him, the rally was meant to dramatize their call for the government to do something to raise the salaries of the 450,000 public school teachers nationwide.
He said the take-home pay of an average teacher, after deductions has been made, range only from P8,500 to P8,000, adding that with the skyrocketing cost of living nowadays, teachers were unable to cope with the prices of basic commodities forcing many of them to do additional job to make both ends met.
Quoting a report provided by the National Statistics Coordinating Board, Tinio said the poverty threshold for Metro Manila is pegged at P10,000.
But the amount covers only basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Recreation and emergency expenses are not included.
The statistics likewise showed that for a family of six, the minimum living wage should be at P870 a day.
The protestors urged Congress to pass the "salary-upgrading bill" that will raise the renumeration of teachers from the current P10,933 to P19,500.
Tinio said the salary upgrading is badly needed if the government wants dignity in the teaching profession.
He added that it would also stanch the flow of teachers who want to work abroad even for such menial jobs as domestic workers or caregivers. (AH/Sunnex)
