CLARK FREEPORT -- The Citizens' Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) Party-list is pushing for additional benefits for instructors and professors in state universities and colleges (SUCs) and state-run technical and vocational institutions (TechVoc) in the country.
Cibac lawmakers Deputy Speaker Bro. Eddie Villanueva and Domingo Rivera filed House Bill 3218, which aims to give better compensation to all faculty members of higher technical education by giving them additional allowances.
The instructors may use their additional income of P20,000 per year on grocery, transportation and medical expenses.
The amount will be released at the rate of P5000 every quarter, subject to limit of our existing taxation laws on bonuses, allowances and other benefits.
"Many laws are passed to address the needs of the students, but little, if any, are made to address the concerns and plight of those at the other side of the education sector -- the teachers and instructors. They also need the attention of policymakers to craft measures aimed to increasing their remunerations and benefits so as to alleviate their living conditions," said Villanueva.
The bill received positive response from the Commission on Higher Education (Ched), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), and Philippine Accrediting Association on Schools, Colleges and Universities (Paascu).
The additional benefits are expected to motivate the nearly 38,000 higher and technical education teachers to perform at par with the demands of their profession and continue delivering quality education to the future generation of Filipinos in state-run learning institutions.
"Our instructors and professors in the higher and technical education sector are not only battling with high costs of living, they are also facing challenges and pressures to be healthy and physically resilient and be at par with the demands of continuous improvement and advancement in their profession. Thus, providing additional benefits to our faculty members would greatly help in preserving a motivated and committed workforce that will continue to commit to shape the minds of the future generations of Filipinos," Rivera said.
The House Committee on Higher and Technical Education responded by creating a technical working group (TWG) with representatives from different agencies, including Ched, Tesda, Department of Budget and Management, and Civil Service Commission to further thresh out the details of the proposed measure.
House Bill 3218 is a counterpart measure of Senate Bill 151 authored by Senator Joel Villanueva, who chairs the Senate Committee on Higher and Technical Education.