Thank you for that kind introduction.

I seldom accept speaking invitations, except if it comes from Catholic educators, because having endured nine years of homilies by the Christian Brothers, and six years of sermons by the Jesuits, I have always looked forward to returning the favor, through a winding—and windy—speech only a senator can inflict.

I have read your position paper on the possibility of narrowing the gap in the pay of private school teachers and their public counterparts.

And like any issue that confronts a Philippine politician today, I have approached it with an open mouth—I mean, with an open mind.

Because your plea requires taxes, let me take off from it.

In the week Congress passed the TRAIN bill, it also passed the bill increasing the salaries of policemen, soldiers, jail guards, and firemen.

So when Congress approved a slew of new taxes that will have a net yield of P90 billion a year, it also increased the salaries of uniformed personnel at a cost of P62 billion annually.

In short, the net yield of the first installment of TRAIN is P35 billion.

So contrary to the spin that new taxes on softdrinks, and higher levies on fuel, will fund trillions-of-pesos worth of infrastructure, the bulk of collections will be used to meet the payroll of one class of civil servants.

TRAIN, in reality, will not fund Build, Build, Build, but will Pay, Pay, Pay government men.

And government payroll had risen sharply over the past 8 years, doubling from P458 billion in 2010, to P1.1 trillion this year.

The compensation footprint is so large that 50 percent of BIR collections this year will end up in the pay envelopes of government men.

On a daily basis, the national government’s “payroll, pension, and premium payments” expense is P3 billion.

Metered per minute, it is P2 million—gone in 60 seconds.

Because they account for more than half of the government workforce, about 40 percent of the payroll budget of P421 billion this year goes to DepED and SUCs.

We’re spending more than a billion a day on the DepED payroll alone. But that is more due to the size of the DepED bureaucracy, which is 772,000-strong, than on the size of the pay envelope of each.

However, this vertigo-inducing climb in payroll expense is far from plateauing.

There is one more year left in the four-year SSL IV pay hike timetable. And the President had boasted that what soldiers got, teachers will also receive.

I have made the above illustration so you will know where the taxes you pay go. My intention is to enlighten you. But if you feel enraged, upon realizing, should you go later to the SM next door to eat, that 50 percent of what you will pay in taxes will end up as government salary, please don’t.

The reason is that private schools are also a major recipient of tax dividends.

It is estimated that some P60 billion in appropriated funds will be funneled into private educational institutions through several modes this year.

GASTPE has a budget of P10.67 billion, while Senior High School Vouchers for Private School has P13.69 billion. On top of this is the P1.15 billion for the Joint Delivery Vouchers for Senior High School.

Meanwhile, the share of private schools under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act-funded programs is about P27 billion, broken down as follows:

P7 billion in TVET Subsidy. P15.8 billion in TES, or Tertiary Education Subsidy. And about P3.9 billion in various tertiary-level scholarship programs, assuming 60 percent of the funds will go to the private sector.

The money to pay for each GASTPE seat and every college scholarship is not printed in the government mint. The truth is, that while politicians get the credit, it is the people who raise the cash.

The money is collected from the people, not in one big installment, but one purchase at a time—a bottle of beer, a liter of gasoline, a pack of instant noodles.

For example, to fund just one Senior High Voucher in NCR, which costs P22,500, excise tax from 13,846 sticks of cigarettes must be collected.

If one Grade 9 GASTPE seat in a rural school will be exclusively financed by the soda tax on a Coke, then 708 people must buy a litro each to raise the amount.

If one SHS voucher in a Pasig school will be funded solely out of instant noodle taxes, then 100 families must buy one Lucky Me every day—for one whole year—to meet the quota.

If one Batangas barrio, for example, decides to raise P1 million worth of college scholarships, solely out of the sin tax on their favorite drink, then they will have to swig and sip through 150,000 bottles of gin first before they can hit the amount, an ordeal which will make them a real Barangay Ginebra that is both intoxicated and intaxicated.

But is there still budget space for a scheme to augment private teacher pay, to prevent them from being tempted to migrate to public schools?

There could be, but you have to state your meritorious case convincingly.

What makes your advocacy feasible is that such kind of assistance is neither new nor novel in this land, and the budget numbers show it.

The government is spending close to one trillion pesos—or P950 billion—this year on various kinds of subsidies and financial assistance, including the programs that benefit private schools.

There is an alphabet soup of direct aid programs. A few, like the 4Ps, have become household names.
The budget of each is also staggering.

CCT is an P82 billion project this year. The price tag of PhilHeath enrolment of indigent families and senior citizens is P57 billion. Pension for poor seniors from the DSWD will cost close to P20 billion this year.

And we continue to fund newly-legislated safety nets.

To catch those who will fall between the TRAIN tracks, or cracks— government has allotted P24.5 billion this year, under a program that will give P200 a month to 10 million families so they could cope with the rise in the prices of basic goods.

The new Free Irrigation Law waives P2.6 billion in user fees a year.

Unknown to many, each uniformed personnel gets free rice a month, thankfully 20 kilos and not unli, but still requires P1.44 billion a year.

So if you tally the tax breaks, bailouts, and subsidies the state has given, it would show that it has been more generous to the rich than to the poor.

Corporations breathe through tax loopholes. And how many billions of pesos in lifeline loans have been thrown to drowning firms, whose buoyancy has been compromised by poor management?

So you can argue that if those who grow food for the people can get subsidies, then why can’t those who feed the minds of the young?

Your case for aid, under the principle of complementarity, may find a receptive audience within policy circles, if packaged this way:

One, it will be in exchange for work rendered, which makes it a compensation, not a dole out.

Two, it should be under relaxed civil service rules so that private school teachers can cross-teach in all levels of the public school system, or in ALS programs. If treaties now allow the free movement of talent and labor, why should such not be allowed here?

If it takes a village to teach a child, then the bureaucratic walls which prevent them from doing so must come crashing down.

Personally, I do not have a problem with your proposal, given this government’s spending biases.

For example, my staff last night ran the numbers of the 10-year financial cost of the BBL, and they have come up with this: Possibly as high as P2.295 trillion, based on a 13 percent annual growth.

On the first year of implementation alone, the tab to taxpayers of the Bangsamoro region will be P128 billion. Not all of this is new money, but includes what ARMM will receive if it will not be abolished.

At yan ay para sa unang taon pa lang, after the BBL is ratified.

Ano sabi sa BBL bill?

For three years after its ratification, it will be run, not by elected leaders, because the elections will be held three years later, but by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.

Who will compose the Bangsamoro Transition Authority? Let me read from the bill:

“The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, being the principal party to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, shall lead the BTA in its leadership and membership.”

Magkano nga pakiusap at lambing ninyo? Di hamak maliit lang. Kung papayag ako sa BBL, with its huge cost, then how can I not back a reasonable request from teachers, moreso if it is at a level taxpayers can afford?

On this note, let me say thank you for enduring my lecture today, and I look forward to collaborative efforts that will benefit the nation’s most precious resource – our children.

Maraming salamat po.