The Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) calls on all teachers, education workers and advocates to join us on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, at Luneta as we unite with the people in a massive rally against corruption.
For years, we have fought not only for the rights and welfare of our teachers but also for meaningful reforms in our education system and the society as a whole. We firmly believe that our demands for decent pay and dignified working conditions are inseparable from the broader struggle of the ordinary people, the working class and our nation against corruption and inequality.
Until now, the call for a P15,000 across-the-board salary increase for public school teachers remains unanswered. Instead of prioritizing teachers and learners, our government continues to allow corruption to flourish in agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways, where anomalous projects and collusion with legislators and contractors bleed our national resources dry. These very crooks and their nepo babies shamelessly flaunt their lavish lifestyles — showing off luxury cars, branded accessories, extravagant vacations, fine dining sprees, and even expensive umbrellas as symbols of excess — while many of our schools remain flooded, especially in Bulacan, where countless classrooms are still under water.
In this light, the TDC has also brought before the Supreme Court the question of the constitutionality of the 2025 national budget, which, for the first time, placed the DPWH above the Department of Education (DepEd) and all education agencies, including Ched, Tesda and our state universities and colleges. This glaring distortion of priorities channels a third of a trillion pesos into flood control projects — funds that have now been exposed as not merely vulnerable to corruption but deliberately designed as a grand scam, the handiwork of a syndicate — while our schools, teachers and learners continue to be deprived of their most urgent needs.
Teachers and learners are left to suffer with chronic shortages of classrooms, textbooks, and basic water and sanitation facilities, while billions of pesos are wasted on ghost projects and substandard infrastructures. This is not merely inefficiency — it is a systemic betrayal of public trust.
We say enough. Corruption and extreme inequality are symptoms of a deeply ill society. The cure lies not only in holding the corrupt accountable but also in building a progressive and responsive education system that uplifts the majority, empowers the marginalized and ensures genuine social justice.
On Sept. 21, we will march together — not just as teachers demanding fair pay and humane conditions, but as citizens determined to break the cycle of corruption and inequality that holds back our children’s future.
TDC stands with the people. TDC stands against corruption.