Duterte to Congress: Pass salary increases for gov’t workers

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday asked Congress to pass a new Salary Standardization Law that will cover the pay increases of government employees including teachers and nurses.

Duterte issued the call before a joint session of Congress for his fourth State of the Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.

"I therefore believe that it is now time for Congress to approve a new version of the Salary Standardization Law, ngayon na," Duterte told the lawmakers.

"To the teachers, alam mo dito... who toil and work tirelessly to educate our young, kasali na po dito 'yung hinihingi ninyo," he added.

Last month, Duterte assured public school teachers that his government would raise their salaries, but noted that there are millions of them.

Should this be realized, Duterte said that the pay increase will not be big, but it will be enough.

"Hindi naman masyadong malaki, pero it will tide you over during these hard times, a little bit bigger than before. This is intended to increase the salaries of national government workers including teachers and nurses," he explained.

For her part, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said that raising a teacher's pay by P10,000 a month as proposed by some groups would cost the government P150 billion.

Briones said she has been working with the economic team of the government to find measures to increase the salary of  830,000 teachers.

According to Briones, the fiscal impact of the salary increase should be considered and assessed, and that there is an equity issue in relation to issues of other government personnel that need to be addressed.

Teachers have been asking for a pay hike especially after Congress approved a 100% increase in the base pay of military and other uniformed personnel that took effect last year.  — RSJ, GMA News