by Dr. Corinna Frances Cabanilla and Frances Fatima Cabana
Senatorial candidate Sonny Angara claimed during the April 28 ANC Harapan 2013 debate that he has pursued bills on education particularly on raising the salary of teachers from PhP14,000 to 18,000 in 2008.
Based on records in Congress, Sonny Angara is the principal author of House Bill 00395 (An act upgrading the minimum salary grade level of teachers from salary grade 10 to 19), which is filed during the first regular session of the 15th Congress in 2010 and not in 2008. According to the said bill, this change of salary grade level corresponds to almost six thousand pesos (PhP6,000) increase in salary and not four thousand pesos (PhP4,000) as he mentioned.
Angara also filed during the same year House Bill 00397 (An act granting exemption to the public school teachers from the coverage of Republic Act No. 6758, otherwise known as the salary standardization law). Under Section 3 of the said bill, the Department of Education in consultation with the Department of Budget and Management, the Civil Service Commission and representatives from national teachers organizations shall study, analyze, review, revise, adjust, fix and implement a comprehensive and competitive upgrading of salary structure for school teachers employed in government service, independent from the provisions of the Salary Standardization Law.
To access the actual bills, you may download HB 00395 at http://www.congress.gov.ph/download/basic_15/HB00395.pdf and HB 00397 at http://www.congress.gov.ph/download/basic_15/HB00397.pdf.
Corrina Frances Cabanilla,
Frances Fatima Cabana is the Deputy Director of System Information Office, UP Diliman.
