CLAD in black, public school teachers in Negros Occidental called on President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill his campaign promise to increase their salaries.
More than 2,000 teachers from Bacolod City and neighboring localities joined the nationally-coordinated protest Wednesday afternoon, February 21, to demand higher pay.
They marched from Rizal Elementary School and Bacolod public plaza then converged at the Fountain of Justice.
They held streamers bearing messages like “#SalaryIncreaseNow,” “Release our performance-based bonus now,” “New tax reform law palas-anon sang pumuluyo! (burden to the people!)” and “Abolish continuing professional development law.”
The teachers also brought bottles of mineral water, which are essential to them when they’re holding classes, to symbolize that they couldn’t afford to buy it.
Gualberto Dajao, president of Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Negros, said the recent P25 increase in the take-home pay of teachers can’t even buy two bottles of mineral water.
He said the salaries of teachers at the entry level should be P29,000, like the police and the military.
Dajao said majority of the public school teachers in Bacolod joined the protest action.
He said they filed a leave of absence Wednesday and sent their pupils and students home.
“The teachers don’t want to leave their classrooms, but this (venue) will give them a chance to air out their complaints and grievances to the administration,” Dajao said.
He said, “we want to exert pressure on this administration...we demand salary hike because we believe it is necessary, just and legitimate.”
Dajao pointed out that the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers stated that salaries of teachers should be enough for them and their families.
He also said they are wore black shirts during the rally to signify that they are burying their hope in the administration to alleviate their condition as what Duterte had promised during the campaign period.
Dajao also slammed the new tax reform law as it affected the teachers, too.
“We were deceived. We thought at first that the tax reform law will give additional take-home pay to the teachers, but it’s not true,” he added.