Lawmakers are eyeing to provide the necessary fund to the proposed salary increase for public school teachers. This pertains to giving a starting salary of P30,000 for Teacher I or an increase of around P10,000.
Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero and Iligan City Rep. Frederick Siao said Congress could approve a bigger pay hike for teachers if there is an additional funding source.
“I will support tapping Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) as a source. They should pay taxes, which Congress could allocate for social services like education and for personnel benefits,” Romero, who represents party-list group 1-Pacman, said.
In the latest proposal which was clearly favored by most lawmakers, it would only give around P6,000 increase in teachers' salaries from 2020 to 2023.
Romero and Siao are among the scores of members of the House of Representatives who have filed bills to increase the monthly salary of teachers in the public sector from P20,754 to P30,000, or by almost P10,000.
“Right now, the first sector I see that can be taxed heavily to generate the P126 billion annually is POGO. Taxing those POGOs to fund the P10,000 teachers’ pay hike clamor would be like hitting two birds with one stone or solving two problems at once,” Siao added.
Siao said the P10,000 increase is possible and doable with an estimated budget of P9 billion a month, this would translate to a total funding requirement of P126 billion a year, including the mandatory additional midyear benefit of one-month salary and another month as yearend bonus.
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