House urged to pass Senate-approved bill doubling teachers’ pay

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 3, 2008) - The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has urged the House of Representatives to promptly pass the Senate-approved bill seeking to increase by P9,000 or double the minimum basic pay for the country's public school teachers.

"House leaders should now stop paying lip service to the plight of our more than 500,000 public school teachers, and waste no time in passing the bill that the Senate already approved two months ago," TUCP secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera, said in a statement.

Herrera was referring to Senate Bill (SB) 2408, principally authored by Sen. Loren Legarda. The bill proposes to raise from Salary Grade 10 to 19 the entry-level pay classification for teachers in public elementary and high schools.

This means their initial monthly pay would be jacked up to a new range of P18,471 to P21,995. The existing range is P10,933 to P12,997.

On top of the preliminary P9,000-increase, public school teachers would also get a P3,000-pay raise every three years.

Once approved, the initial adjustment would likewise automatically set off commensurate pay increases for every teacher in the public school system currently receiving compensation higher than the starting rate.

Herrera stressed the need for Congress "to redeem public school teachers from grinding poverty and restore the nobility of the teaching profession."

He warned that unless the House passes the Senate-approved bill, the public school system would continue to lose thousands of highly qualified instructors forced to seek greener pasture overseas, or here in the private sector.

Herrera noted that English-speaking Filipino teachers continue to leave in droves for overseas employment, particularly for the United States, where they get up to $4,000 monthly.

"Advancing in a big way the quality of life of our teachers and keeping them constantly motivated is the best way for Congress to check and reverse the rapid decline of basic education," Herrera pointed out.

Once SB 2408 is enacted, the first-year pay for public school teachers would be almost 25 percent higher than the P15,000 average starting pay for their counterparts in the private sector.

House Bill 4734, principally authored by Gabriela party-list Rep. Luzviminda Iligan, is the counterpart of SB 2408. Ilagan’s bill has been pending with the House appropriations committee since July 2007.

House Bill Threatens Food Security In Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 9, 2008) - A Filipino lawmaker on Tuesday said a bill being proposed in Congress would affect food security in the Philippines.

Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan said the House Resolution 737 authored by Speaker Prospero Nograles, seeks to amend Sections 2 and 3 of Article XII of the Philippine Constitution that would allow the acquisition by foreign corporations and associations, and transfer of alienable lands and private lands.

“Allowing 100 percent foreign ownership of Philippine lands will further endanger the country’s food security and may lead to higher hunger and poverty incidence in the Philippines," she said.

She said the resolution aims to scrap the provision in the Constitution requiring 60 percent ownership by Filipino citizens of corporations wanting to explore, develop and utilize the country’s natural resources and hopes to allow foreign individuals, corporations and associations to hold up to 1,000 hectares of alienable lands of public domain by lease or acquire up to 25 hectares of the same.

According to Ilagan, the resolution, which also aims to sustain national growth by attracting investments, contradicts the 1987 Constitution which states that the State “shall protect Filipino enterprises against unfair foreign competition and trade practices” and “promote industrialization and full employment based on sound agricultural development and agrarian reform”.

“HR 737 will open almost 50 percent of the Philippine’s 30 million hectares of lands to foreigners. Foreign corporations which have greater capability to buy lands than most Filipinos do, will transform these into huge plantations, large scale mining site and other conglomerates which will suit only commercial, transnational interests. As 93 percent of the alienable and disposable lands to become available to them are agricultural, it will displace farmers and will push the country to rely on rice imports to be able to eat,” Ilagan said.

In Mindanao, she said 8,262,612 hectares of the 20,399,772 island’s total land area can be owned by foreign corporations. She fears that Nograles’ plan will lead to further displacement of the Bangsamoro and indigenous peoples and the worsening of peace situation in the southern provinces.

Vast tracks of mineral-rich lands in Mindanao are already being exploited by multinational companies such as Canadian-owned TVI Pacific Inc. for gold, silver, copper and zinc and Crew Development Corporation for nickel. Oil behemoth Exxon Mobil is exploring Sulu for oil deposits while Australian mining giant BHP Billiton is interested in Davao’s nickel.

Ilagan also questioned the medium through which the Speaker is attempting to amend the Constitution. She said that a House resolution would not suffice as changes in the highest law of land should be done by a House bill that is either joint or concurrent that can be transmitted by the House to the Senate.

Filipino Solon Tags President As "Incompetent"

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 25, 2008) - A Filipino lawmaker on Friday branded President Gloria Arroyo as "incompetent" and blamed her government for current state of children in the country.

"Gloria Arroyo's incompetence as a leader stunted the growth of our children,” said Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan during a press conference organized by the Salinlahi Alliance for Children's Concerns.

"Arroyo deprived 29 million children in the Philippines their basic rights to life, survival and development as enshrined both in the Constitution and the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child," she said.

Ilagan said Arroyo’s anti-people policies have forced a large number of young Filipinos, mostly below 18 years of age, to work so they can their poor family instead of going to school.

"A lot of children from poor farming and fishing communities are employed as factory workers, construction workers and domestic helpers in the cities and some girls are trafficked to become prostitutes in other countries such as Japan, China and Taiwan."

"During her first State of the Nation Address in 2001, Arroyo promised three kids from (the slum district of) Payatas (in Manila) to improve the quality of life in the Philippines by providing every Filipino access to quality education," she said.

She said seven years have passed but the statistics show that 1 out of 10 children is unable to go to school and two to three students have to share a textbook and that 60 to 75 students atten their classes under a mango tree because there was not enough rooms for them.

"Is this her definition of quality education and better life?” she asked.

In 2007, Arroyo claimed that her government invested more for education than the previous years, but a consolidated report submitted to the Geneva Convention on the Rights of the Child noted that the education sector's share in social services actually declined.

But a report by the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research said that the national government spending on education fell by 22% from 2001-2006.

For 2008, Ilagan said, the budget allocated for education is just slightly over P2000 per person or 14% less than in 1998. She also cut the budget and is pushing for the privatization of public schools, moving education further away from many poor Filipinos’ reach.

"The future of our children remains bleak because we still have GMA as our president," Ilagan said. (With reports from the Mindanao Examiner)