Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. has filed a bill seeking to increase to P3,000 the annual World Teachers’ Day Incentive Benefit payable to every public school teacher employed by the Department of Education (DepEd).
Under House Bill No. 7840, the benefit would be bumped up from P1,000 to P3,000.
“Our bill merely seeks to augment the value of the WTDIB and make permanent via legislation the grant of the incentive benefit,” he said.
Campos is the House appropriations committee vice chairperson.
He invoked the mandate of the 1987 Constitution for the State “to ensure that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate renumeration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.”
At present, a public school teacher receives only P1,000 every year as his or her WTDIB.
The incentive benefit is currently being paid to them every Oct. 5, which is celebrated annually as World Teachers’ Day to pay tribute to those engaged in the teaching profession.
Public school teachers first enjoyed the WTDIB four years ago when Congress inserted the incentive benefit as an item in the 2019 national budget with an initial funding of P800 million.
This year, the incentive benefit has a funding of P900 million in the 2023 General Appropriations Law.
Congress has provided an aggregate of P4.4 billion in funding for the WTDIB since 2019, according to Campos.