FACT CHECK: No Senate bill seeks to raise basic teacher’s salary to P54,000

Claim: A Senate bill seeks to raise the basic salary of teachers from P27,000 to P54,000. 

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The post containing the claim has 374 shares, 290 reactions, and 92 comments as of writing. 

The fact: None of the five bills currently filed in the Senate aims to provide such an increase. 

The currently filed Senate bills (SB) with their corresponding proposed increases are as follows: 

• SB No. 4 by Senators Loren Legarda and Chiz Escudero – upgrade salary grade (SG) level of public school teachers to SG 15, teaching personnel in higher education to SG 16, and non-teaching personnel to P16,000
• SB No. 149 by Senators Win Gatchalian and Chiz Escudero – increase the SG levels of Teacher I to Teacher III
• SB No. 267 by Senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr – increase the SG of public school teachers from SG 11 to to 15
• SB No. 324 by Senators Sonny Angara, and Chiz Escudero – upgrade SG level of teachers from SG 11 to 19
• SB No. 1164 by Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito – provide a P10,000 increase in the basic monthly salary of all public elementary and secondary school teachers

Current salary: Pursuant to Executive Order No. 811, s. 2009, a public school teacher I falls under SG level 11. And as the fourth tranche of the Salary Standardization Law of 2019 took effect in January 2023, the current basic monthly salary of teachers is now at P27,000. 

No Senate bill seeks to increase the basic salary of teachers to P54,000. The highest proposed increase is only at P51,357 under SB 234. 

Status of the bills filed: The bills were filed as early as July 2022, yet all remain pending at the committee level after first reading. – Ailla Dela Cruz/Rappler.com

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