• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
About a thousand teachers joined the national day of action for salary increase by lighting candles at the Fountain of Justice in Bacolod City last night.
Dubbed ‘A Thousand Lights for Salary Increase,’ the teachers are calling on the Marcos administration to grant salary increases to all teachers, including P50,000 to teachers with salary grade 1.
Richard Gelangre, president of Bacolod City Public School Teachers Federation, yesterday said that at present, the gross salary of Teacher 1 is only P27,000 a month. They have received an increase of P6,000 but this was given on a staggered basis over four years.
Gelangre, principal of the Bacolod City National High School, said they are also asking for national teaching personnel to be given P33,000 a month. Some of them are only receiving P11,000 to P12,000 a month, which is not enough considering the high cost of basic commodities, as well as increase in electricity and water rates.
While they are not holding any Labor Day activity on May 1, they however hope that the national government will also grant workers salary increases, he said.
Meanwhile, they called their action ‘A Thousand Lights for Salary Increase’ hoping that government officials will be enlightened on the dire economic and labor conditions of the teachers and grant them substantial salaries considering the sacrifices they are doing for their students, despite the hot weather brought about by the weather condition called El Niño, Gelangre said.
They are calling on the President to heed the demand of teachers for salary increases to alleviate their living conditions so they won’t have to work abroad, he said.
During the candle-lighting ceremony, Warlito Rosareal, national president of the National Association of Public Secondary Schools of the Philippines, led a prayer after giving his statement of support.*
