By Perfecto T. Raymundo, Jr.
PASIG CITY – Benjo Basas, National Chairperson of the Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) and Spokesperson of Atin Guro Party-list, on Wednesday (Oct. 9) said both organizations are separate and independent of each other composed of public school teachers.
Basas is now in active service as a public school teacher.
During the Kapihan sa Metro East Media Forum organized by the PaMaMariSan-Rizal Press Corps and supported by the Pinoy Ako advocacy group, Basas said that they are maximizing the decision of the Supreme Court that the election stars from the election period.
As to the advocacy, the primary is the welfare for the teachers, for the children condition of the children in schools, including the protection for the teacher and for the nation.
Human rights, climate justice and 80 percent of the time, they are talking about the welfare and rights of public school teachers.
We are good enough for the advocacy of the rights and welfare of public school teachers nationwide.
13-point teachers dignity agenda in 2022 elections, not necessarily for us as we were not participants in the 2022 elections. For those who ran for Senator, Vice President, who was appointed as DepEd Secretary.
Majority of the 13-point teachers dignity agenda were implemented. The new DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara has levelled up his engagement with the public school teachers.
Twice that they had “face-to-face” meetings with Secretary Angara.
It’s the first time that the DepEd Secretary has issued a bold order or bold step to delete the administrative tasks to teachers and just leave the anciliary tasks to teachers which are related to the schools.
If the DepEd has already hired “non-teaching” positions, that will be time that the Administrative Order such that there’s a need for 15,000 to fully implement the administrative tasks.
Child abuse is committed by teachers for alleged “threats” on children even when not actually committed.
Republic Act 7610, or the “Anti-Child Abuse Law” is a good law in order to protect the rights and welfare of children.
Basas noted that children should really be taught in order to learn, however, teachers are now very vulnerable to allegations of abuse of school children such as the alleged incident in Antipolo City and one incident that allegedly one child was called “Demonyo”.
A teacher was transferred from Antipolo City, Rizal to Talim Island, Binangonan for alleged abuse committed on a school children, but at least the teacher was not dismissed from the service and the same was just transferred.
Basas also cited that case of a teacher who made a “Tiktok” video, but the teacher was at least not punished.
A mere allegation constitutes criminal or administrative case so much so that the teacher who allegedly physically abused, but not proven, and the witness was a cousin of the school child. October to January suspension or three months without pay, whose husband is a fisherman in Talim, Binangonan.
Teacher 1 or classroom teacher does not have the “power” to influence anybody. The default is that there should be probable cause in an allegation of rape, which the prosecutor would say that it will be proven in court.
If the teacher would later be absolved of the case, the same teacher will be reinstated to his/her teaching position.
Basas stressed that the Child Protection Policy in RA 7610 could jeopardize the teacher such as to be summoned in Barangay, but the Supreme Court ruled that the teacher cannot be summoned by the Barangay.
There’s a case that a teacher who stood in the middle of a brawl of school children and in the process, a student was hurt, and it was already classified as child abuse.
In an in incident of a school teacher in Caloocan North was stabbed to death, who was not even paid the last respects by a student, who was earlier disciplined by the teacher.
Basas said that it’s time to highlight the issue on suspension or case to be filed even a minor student, should be held liable for violation of the law such that 15-year-old is already legally liable.
He added that they are studying to implement the Teacher Protection Policy such that there are cases that teachers might have only been victimized by “trumped up” charges.
Basas cited the biggest rally against teachers in South Korea two years ago, who committed suicide because of shame as he was bashed for imposing disciplinary action on a student.
A case in Pangasinan where a teacher allegedly shouted to a student for just calling the attention of students, however, the teacher was suspended.
Basas said that the Penal Provision of RA 7610 should be revisited, but not enough, there should be a “cure”, in so far as the teachers are concerned.
“We have no policy on child discipline and RA 7610 only mentioned about Positive Discipline. We have no good Guidance and Counselling in DepEd,” Basas said.
He cited the case wherein a teacher died due to stress as all the blames were hurled on the teacher.
Basas said that there are 28 million students in Basic Education and less than 3,000 registered guidance counsellors not only in public sector and others are in private schools.
Socio-economic is blamed on the quality of education, which if not economically well off, the teacher resorts to “sidelines’ and because of that the teacher is not focused on teaching and if the sideline is teaching in private, the quality of education in public sector is also affected.
Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Singapore, and Vietnam are all with high wages for teachers and with quality education.
The teachers should also have the right to quality wages. The qualification for teacher is very high. The teacher should pass the Licensure Examination and the salary of the teacher is the lowest among the professionals.
The President – 40 years old, 10 years, natural born citizen, able to read and write are the qualifications with Salary Grade 33, Senator and Congressman salary Grade 31 and Teacher with Salary Grade 11.
Plato, Aristotle, Socrates – Greece, Confucius, Lao Tiu in China. In modern society, it’s education such that a society would not be developed with quality education.
Knowledge cannot be transferred without the teachers.
The PHP38,500 entry level salary for a Teacher is not good enough for the TDC and Atin Guro Party-list, Basas said.
The teachers are also agreeable to level up the Licensure Examination, but their compensation should be increased as well.
“If the salary of the teachers has the lowest salary in the government, it means that the teachers have the lowest pay in the bureaucracy,” Basas said.
He cited that the Comelec has denied their party-list, but they have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.
The Party-list law is aimed to present the underprivileged that those who have no capacity to participate in the election of Legislative District, can still participate in the elections.
They filed their motion for reconsideration directly with the Supreme Court, noting that the Comelec denied their petition for accreditation was denied for “no address of officers in the petition for accreditation, TDC did not declare a concept, in which it’s different from TDC Coalition, their list of members was partial. Almost 2,800 names, which was overlooked by the lawyer.”
Mere typo error and double registrants. Only NCR plus for regional party Metro Manila, Pampanga, Bataan, Batangas were excluded. It was reduced to 2,531 members.
The SC did not issue a TRO in the petition of the TDC.
The printing of the ballots will be made in December 2024 for the May 12, 2025 national and local elections.
Compensation which should be higher because of high risk. The exemption from tax was attained during the time of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte but was vetoed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
PHP12,000 honorarium in the May 2025 midterm elections will be deducted with PHP2,000, hence, PHP10,000.
Health for teacher after the elections.