By Jonathan Geronimo
Secretary-General
Alliance of Concerned Teachers Private Schools
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Private Schools condemns President Bongbong Marcos’ 2025 State of the Nation Address (Sona) for its glaring silence on the urgent issues plaguing private-sector educators and the broader education crisis. The President’s silence on wage hikes for private-sector workers, abandonment of teachers’ welfare, and evasion of pressing social issues exposes the administration’s indifference to the suffering of ordinary Filipinos.
President Marcos devoted hours to empty boasts while ignoring the elephant in the room: private school teachers drowning in poverty. His refusal to even mention substantial salary increases for the private sector — where educators earn as little as P17,500 monthly — proves his disconnect from the people’s struggles. How can we call this leadership when teachers skip meals to buy school supplies?
The Sona’s evasion of the education crisis — including overcrowded classrooms, unpaid benefits, and the P551 daily gap between minimum wage and the P1,200 family living wage — confirms the regime’s neglect. While Marcos parades ‘economic gains,’ private educators survive on starvation wages. Our colleagues in Vietnam and Thailand earn P59,000 monthly. Here, a teacher’s salary can’t even cover rent and rice, yet the President claims we’re ‘doing great.’ This isn’t governance — it’s betrayal.
We condemn Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma’s earlier falsehoods branding Metro Manila’s P645 minimum wage as “Southeast Asia’s highest,” as inflation slashes its real value to P522. Blocking the P200 wage hike while peddling lies proves this government’s priority: protecting oligarchs, not lifting workers from poverty.
We demand immediate wage increases, national industrialization, and genuine land reform to rebuild the economy. Until teachers earn living wages and schools get adequate funding, this education crisis will only worsen. Marcos’ Sona silence screams his contempt for the masses.