Even while still in the Senate, presidential frontrunner Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. has already been pushing for legislation that would raise teachers’ salaries from salary grade 11 to salary grade 15, which is also one of his major campaign advocacies now that he is running for the highest post in the land.
On January 24, 2012, the former senator first submitted Senate Bill No. 3106, or An Act Upgrading the Minimum Salary Grade of Public School Teachers from Salary Grade 11 to 15.
Unfortunately, it did not pass on the first reading prompting him to file Senate Bill No. 109, which again sought to raise teachers’ compensation from salary grade 11 to 15 on July 1, 2013. Again, the bill was not enacted.
Despite those setbacks, Marcos said he will continue to push for programs and reforms designed to uplift the quality of life for teachers, and consequently inspire them to provide the highest quality of service and teaching to their students.
“We need to provide our teachers with all the necessary support because they were the ones who were molding our young students to become better, responsible and productive citizens who in turn would become the country’s future leaders,” he said.
Marcos said that after winning the presidency, he will increase the salaries of public school teachers, adding that he will also provide free training and scholarships to their children.
To recall, at the recent presidential debate at SMNI, Marcos stated that one of the things he wants to do for education is to offer decent benefits and adequate salaries for teachers.
“Let’s support our teachers, their salaries are enough, and their salaries don’t arrive late. We can give them all the benefits in the law so that they lose their worries about themselves and their families,” Marcos said.
“Besides that, we should not only support them financially, we should also support them in education, retraining, refresher courses so that they can teach the latest for children,” he added.
Even in the former senator’s interview with lawyer Trixie Angeles in her program “Luminous Trixie,” Marcos mentioned that he would be doing the same thing that he did in Ilocos Norte, where the school had seed money to keep teachers from incurring debt.
Several times throughout his rallies, Marcos highlighted supporting teachers, increasing the quality of life for their families, granting scholarships to their children, and upgrading the country’s educational system.