President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday urged Congress to pass a new Salary Standardization Law (SSL) that would increase the salary of public school teachers and other government employees.
“To the teachers who toil and work tirelessly to educate our young, kasali na po dito ‘yung hinihingi niyo…hindi masyadong malaki pero (your request is included here… it's not too much) it will tide you over,” Duterte said in his fourth State of the Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City.
Former president Benigno Aquino Jr. pushed for the SSL which mandated a four-year salary increase to the government employees' basic salaries.
Duterte also lauded the Department of Education under the helm of Secretary Leonor Briones for providing basic education to more than 27 million enrollees from Kinder to Senior High School.
“Out of school youth and adult learners were able to access non-formal education through the alternative learning system,” he added. (Ma. Teresa Montemayor/PNA)
