Magandang araw po sa inyong lahat.

Nang natanggap ko ang inyong imbitasyon na magsalita sa pagtitipong ito, I treated it as an assignment.

So like a student, I did my homework.

So today I am ready for my recitation.

And I can only hope that after I am done you will give me a passing grade. Huwag na po 100, kahit pasang-awa na 70 pwede na.

Ang tawag sa araw na ito ay World Teacher’s Day. Pero para sa akin, it should be called Teacher’s Appreciation Day.

Bakit?

Kasi teaching is the profession that creates all other professions.

The best doctors started out by learning parts of the body in grade school science.

The best engineers are able to do complex calculations because someone taught them 1 plus 1 finger math when they were young.

The best writers would not have been able to produce their works if no one had taught them the ABCs in nursery.

Ask any successful person today and most probably he will credit three persons: God, his family, and some teacher who inspired him to passionately pursue the career he now excels in.

Take note, I used the word “inspire”— because a mediocre teacher tells, a good teacher explains, a superior teacher demonstrates but a great teacher inspires.

Kasi naman, hindi lahat ng importanteng aral sa buhay ay hinuhugot mula sa lesson plan. The great teachings do not always come from a syllabus. In the same way that not all pieces of knowledge are of the academic kind.

Ang mahalagang dapat ituro ay values – values that build character and provide the moral compass of a person.

Without values and morals, a person so talented in finances will use his talent to swindle people of their savings instead of using it to create greater good.

Kaya nga yung mga lessons, minsan nakakalimutan ng isang estudyante. But what a teacher “writes on the blackboard of life” can never be erased.

Minention ko yan, base sa aking experience na rin. Most the things I need to learn in life, I learned in kindergarten: Say please. Express your thanks. Play fair. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Put things back where you found them.

Be compassionate.

That one is important. Because competence without compassion is knowledge wasted. There is emptiness in having talent without empathy. Hindi lang utak ang mahalaga, pero puso rin. Pero sa Batangas, hindi lang utak at puso ang kailangan, pero bayag din.

Gusto ko pong i-recall ang mga ito ngayon, kasi when I look back over the past 50 years of my life, I came to realize that it was not the lessons in higher learning which molded me into who I am today, but values imparted by my teachers into my young impressionable mind.

And if I was able to see a little further, which allowed me to go farther, it is because I once stood on the shoulders of my teachers.

It is a debt that I will recognize until I breathe my last. What I owe my teachers is one that I cannot fully repay. But I try to amortize it in yearly installments, by giving back to the schools of Lipa and Batangas.

Dito ko po binabayaran ang aking utang. And no matter how large my repayments are annually, I know that what I owe them – what I owe you – will not be fully extinguished.

Fully paid naako sa mga atraso ko sa aking asawa. Pero sa Philippine educational system, never.

Ngunit hayaan niyo pong banggitin ko ang aking mga bayad utang. In two parts. Lokal at national.

Simulan po natin dito sa Lipa at sa lalawigan ng Batangas.

New school buildings, rehabilitation and improvements in Inosluban-Marawoy National High School, Lodlod National High School, and Lipa City National Science High School, for example.

We have also constructed these “21st Century Classrooms” in the mentioned schools, as well as in San Celestino National High School and Pinagtongulan National High School.

If you noticed, these are the physical facilities. But the measure of a great school is not its manicured lawns, painted buildings, impressive gates, or even equipment, but the quality of teaching.

Teachers make a great school, not mortar and stone. Di ba nga, Christ, Socrates and Allah taught in open air? Einstein never had a computer. And Shakespeare wrote without Microsoft Word.

Kaya naman po, every budget season, I have tried, and have been modestly successful in pushing for greater benefits for teachers. Napataas po natin ang ilang mga allowance – clothing, chalk. Pero kulang pa.

Speaking of Shakespeare, let me quote him in enumerating the bills I have filed in your behalf. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”

One, nag-file po tayo ng bill raising the chalk allowance to P10,000 a year. Yung P3,500 po kasi na natatanggap ninyo sa ngayon, translates to P16 a day. Kakarampot. Panglimang piraso lang ng kendi.

It is not enough in the age of internet when USBs, in addition to the traditional paper and writing materials, are now part your tool box. Kulang papang-load sa internet kung magchecheck kayo ng Tinder profile.

Kailangan ninyo ng supplies – not only of the paper and pen kind, pero pang-data na rin – because you have to comply with the mountains and gigabytes of reports you have to submit.

Maiba nga tayo ng usapan. Akala ko ba ang computer at internet ay tools for “liberation technology”? Nagpapadali at nagpapagaan dapat ng trabaho. Eh bakit tila nagiging dahilan ng “digital enslavement?”Kaya dapat, ang panawagan hindi lang “Free College”, “Free Health Care”, o “Free Irrigation”—pero Free the Teachers from Excessive Reports na rin!

Second, nag-file na rin tayo ng bill to increase by P10,000 a month, across the board, ang sweldo ninyo.

Simple lang naman ang logic. Ipantay na dapat sa mga sundalo, pulis, bumbero at jail guard. ‘Yan kasi ang rule noon pa man. May parity of pay ang Teacher 1, JO1, PO 1, FO 1, at Private. Umangat na sila, kayo hindi pa.

Hindi ko alam kung kailan i-sa-submit ng DBM ang detalye ng SSL V. What we have just heard is the cost of the first installment, which is P32 billion.

But let me assure you of how I will approach it. Simple lang. Those who comprise the biggest number of underpaid employees in the government should be getting more.

Third, I will file a bill creating Teacher IV, V, VI items. Ngayon kasi after Teacher III na SG 13, ang sunod ay Master Teacher I na, na SG 18.

My plan is to have a Teacher IV with SG 14, Teacher V which will be SG 15, and Teacher VI, which can either be SG 16 or 17.There should be intermediary positions between Teacher III and Master Teacher I for so many valid reasons:

Una, para hindi stuck ang career advancement ng isang guro. Sa ngayon, tila may ceiling or checkpoint na marooned ka not just for years pero dekada ang bibilangin.

Pangalawa, ang laki ng gap ng sweldo ng Teacher III, which is P25,300, at ng Master Teacher I, which is P40,600.

Panahon na rin i-implement ang step increments. Mabuti pa daw sa laro na piko, merong “step yes”, sa pamahalaan, wala, o kung meron man ay madalang.

Yes, this will cost us, and the price is not small. But I always believe that while good teachers are costly, bad teachers will cost more to the society.

Lastly, to round up my report, let me also point out na tuloy din ang adbokasiya nating free college, hindi lang sa public, kundi sa private din.

What is not popularly known is that Grade School, High School, Senior High and College Students are getting tuition subsidy from the government.

Yung sa basic education, ang ibat-ibang klaseng ayuda ay naka-kumpol sa ilalim ng GASTPE. For 2020, ang budget nito ay P31.2 billion.

One of the biggest components is the voucher for students in private senior high schools. Ang subsidy ng bawat isa ay P25,000 kada taon.

Ang sa kolehiyo naman ay nakapaloob sa proposed appropriations of P35.2 billion for the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, kung saan kasama ang mga private colleges.

Hindi na po ako magpapakahaba pa. Sapat na siguro na bigyan ninyo ako ng pasang awa na grado sa aking recitation sa araw na ito.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your service, selflessness and sacrifice. Please continue the important work you are doing for our children, because their future depends on you. Sabi nga nila: A teacher affects eternity.

RELATED ARTICLES:

• 2019 OCT 07: P5K teaching supplies allowance is but 1 of 5 measures hiking teacher pay
• 2019 OCT 05: 772K teachers stranded in deadend positions for lack of higher ranks
• 2019 SEP 22: P7.4 B Science scholarship budget to include 1,927 PHD, 4,264 MA students
• 2019 AUG 10: On ‘wow mali’ books delivery, delays in rooms, computers
• 2019 AUG 01: Recto says CHED deserves incomplete grade for fund underutilization
• 2019 JUL 11: Recto seeks 300% hike in teacher ‘chalk allowance’, to P10,000 a year

SENATE BILLS/AUTHORED LAWS:

• Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education (RA 10931)
• Enhancing the Philippine Basic Education System (K to 12 Program) (RA 10533)
• Kindergarten Education Act (RA 10157)
• Teaching Supplies Allowance Act (Senate Bill No. 42)
• Salary Standardization Law V (Senate Bill No. 49)
• Increasing Teachers’ Salary (Senate Bill No. 466)
• ICT in Education (Senate Bill No. 594)
• Salary Standardization Law V (Senate Bill No. 1006)