SENATOR Win Gatchalian yesterday urged the incoming Marcos-Duterte administration to ensure the full implementation of the “Magna Carta for Public School Teachers” (Republic Act No. 4670).
Gatchalian highlighted three recommendations that he believes would have the most impact and should be prioritized for full implementation: decongesting workload, raising salaries, and ensuring adequate health insurance.
Gatchalian said the 19th Congress should prioritize passing a bill that raises teachers’ salaries.
He also recommended that the Department of Education (DepEd) adopt the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) proposal to conduct studies on teachers’ workload.
This is to rationalize the job functions of public school teachers and allow them to allocate more time for teaching.
To provide adequate health insurance to teachers, Gatchalian cited a proposal from the Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS) that shows that for a premium of P400 per teacher, DepEd personnel would enjoy coverage of up to P120,000.
Subsidizing these premiums would only amount to P369.8 million.
“Achieving the full implementation of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers should be a priority for the incoming administration,” said Gatchalian.
“It is time for the government to make good on the promises it made to teachers almost six decades ago yet failed to keep,” he added.
Gatchalian emphasized that DepEd is non-compliant with three sections of the Magna Carta.
Section 22, for one, provides that public school teachers are entitled to free annual physical examinations. While DepEd has provided some monetary medical assistance since 2019, there is still no program for the annual check-up of teachers as mandated by law, Gatchalian pointed out.
Section 26 has also not been complied with. This section provides that a retiring teacher should be promoted one rank higher, and the salary of that rank should be the basis of computation for retirement benefits.
