Marcos vows better benefits, career growth for teachers

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos vowed yesterday to further improve the benefits and career opportunities of Filipino teachers.

Marcos said education remains a priority of his administration, with the sector receiving its biggest budget in the country’s history this year.

“We will not stop there. We will continue to find ways to further improve the support, benefits and opportunities for our teachers,” the President said in his speech at the “Teacher, Ikaw Naman” event at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

Marcos noted that 82,105 teachers and school heads had been promoted under the Expanded Career Progression System as of September, with another 135,000 targeted for promotion under the proposed 2027 national budget.

“Because supporting our teachers means investing in their growth, we have expanded opportunities for career advancement,” he said.

The government has also expanded benefits for educators, including doubling the annual non-taxable Teaching Allowance to P10,000, providing an annual medical subsidy of up to P7,000 and introducing five days of paid annual wellness leave.

Marcos likewise cited the P1,000 World Teachers’ Day Incentive Benefit, which public school teachers will receive starting Oct. 5, and said he had directed concerned agencies to ensure the orderly and faster processing of the 2024 Performance-Based Bonus.

“The success of our students, including our historic performance in PISA 2025, would not be possible without the sacrifice, dedication and skill of our teachers,” Education Secretary Sonny Angara said.

The celebration also recognized 16 exemplary teachers in Indigenous Peoples Education who have served remote indigenous communities for eight to 30 years.

The educators were recognized for partnering with community elders and culture bearers to develop learning resources tailored to ancestral domains.

Teachers’ march

To mark World Teachers’ Day, teachers marched to Mendiola to press the government to address their demands, accusing the Marcos administration of failing to deliver meaningful improvements to their working conditions.

Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) representative Ruby Bernardo called on Marcos to move beyond recognizing teachers’ sacrifices and fulfill their long-standing demands for decent salaries, humane working conditions, adequately funded and nationalist education and an end to attacks on teachers’ rights and freedoms.

“More than any other celebration, World Teachers’ Day is a nationally coordinated protest by teachers to fight for the rights and well-being of our ranks, and for adequate funding and patriotic education. In the more than four years of the Marcos Jr. administration, there has been no significant change and the situation of teachers has become even more deplorable,” Bernardo said.

She also condemned the violence against teachers who staged a peaceful protest at the gates of Malacañang the previous day.

Bernardo warned that ACT would sustain collective action, including mass walkouts and strikes, if the administration continued to ignore and repress teachers and education workers, neglect basic social services and evade accountability.

“We will utilize our collective strength to advance the interests of our sector. We shall exhaust all available measures and exercise our constitutionally protected rights and freedoms to improve the conditions of millions of educators and the state of Philippine education – not only for our own benefit, but for the entire Filipino people whom we continue to serve,” she added.

Akbayan party-list Rep. Chel Diokno renewed his call for higher salaries and improved health care for public and private school educators, saying many continue to face financial difficulties despite their vital role in nation-building. — Delon Porcalla