Revilla sponsors Teaching Supplies Allowance Act at the Senate plenary
March 15, 2023
REVILLA SPONSORS TEACHING SUPPLIES ALLOWANCE ACT AT THE SENATE PLENARY
"Teaching is the one profession that creates other professions, kahit Pangulo ng bansa o pinakamagiting na Senador pa--lahat ay pinanday ang kaisipan at hinubog ang buong pagkatao ng ating mga guro"
These are the words of Senator Ramon Bong Revilla, Jr. during his sponsorship of Senate Bill No. 1964 or the "Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act" at the Senate. The measure seeks to institutionalize the Teaching Supplies Allowance currently being granted to public school teachers.
The solon noted that the bill was passed by the Senate during the 17th and 18th Congress receiving full support from senators without any opposition in its past deliberations. Revilla last sponsored the same proposal in 2019.
The Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act shall gradually increase the said allowance from its current amount of P5,000 to P10,000 in three years. As a safeguard for possible changes in prices of teaching supplies, the bill also provides for automatic adjustment every 3 years thereafter to account for inflation.
Revilla bared that the current allocation of the allowance in the General Appropriations Act is PHP 4.8 Billion. He further explained that the government would only need to appropriate an additional P2 Billion when the amount reaches P7,500 and P4.5 Billion when it reaches P10,000 in 2025
"This is less than 1% of the total budget of DepEd. In this era of the trillions-peso budget, napakaliit lang po nito para ipagkait natin", he stated.
The veteran lawmaker who chairs the Senate Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation further pointed out that the current amount of annual teaching supplies allowance only provides PHP 24 subsidy per teaching day.
"The current cash allowance also includes a Php 500 allocation for medical examination, kung ibabawas pa natin yan sa pambili ng mga materyales at kagamitan sa pagtuturo ay papatak na lamang sa Php 22 pesos bawat araw. Nasa P68 ang isang kahon ng chalk, P120 ang isang ream ng bond paper hindi pa kasali ang internet load", the solon expounded.
In closing, Revilla said that increasing the amount of Teaching Supplies Allowance would be greatly beneficial to all public school teachers especially to those who want to serve the country through education, despite greener offers overseas.
