By Teachers’ Dignity Coalition national chairman Benjo Basas
The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) expresses its appreciation to Vice Ganda for honoring teachers during the live edition of It’s Showtime on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. Public figures and entertainers who use their platform and influence to elevate the concerns of the marginalized, such as teachers, play a valuable role in amplifying calls for justice and reform.
At one point, while speaking with a teacher-contestant who said she was happy with the appreciation she receives from her students, Vice Ganda remarked: “Ang sarap nga ng pakiramdam, pero hindi sapat na masaya lang. Dapat mabigyan din kayo ng disente at tamang sweldo. Hindi pwedeng puro ‘resilient’ na lang, dapat may respeto at kompensasyon.”
(The sentiment feels good, but happiness alone isn’t sufficient. You deserve to be given a decent and rightful salary. We can’t always just be “resilient” — there must be respect and compensation.)
This sharp line resonates with TDC’s long-standing assertion that teachers’ resilience and sacrifices are being exploited by a system that continues to underpay and neglect them. The constant glorification of teachers’ sacrifices may sound flattering, but in reality, it has been used to justify chronic underinvestment in education and the government’s failure to provide teachers with what they need to live and teach with dignity.
Teachers do not need pity or symbolic gestures alone. They need decent salaries, just benefits, adequate classrooms and strong government support. More importantly, the corruption that robs schools, teachers and learners of vital resources must be decisively addressed.
Vice Ganda even mentioned corruption that steals the money that could fund decent pay for teachers: “Kailangan nating suwelduhan nang mas mataas ang ating mga guro. At nasuwelduhan sana kayo nang tama kung hindi kayo ninanakawan. At kaya mababa ang suweldo niyo kasi ninanakawan kayo.”
(We must pay our teachers more. And you would be receiving the correct salaries if corruption wasn’t draining the funds. The only reason your pay is low is that you are being robbed.)
As Vice Ganda rightly underscored, appreciation must go hand in hand with respect and compensation. For TDC, this means enacting better policies, curbing corruption and investing substantially in education so that teachers’ rights and welfare are secured, not only on World Teachers’ Day, but every single day.
I commended Vice Ganda for these bold statements and urged the government to match its words with action by heeding the call of teachers and ending the long tradition of lip service.
We thank Meme Vice for the support, and may these words pierce through the heart of the government so it may finally realize that the road to a truly prosperous nation begins with dignifying its teachers. The government must stop romanticizing our sacrifices and start fulfilling its obligation to fund education and uplift teachers’ lives.