Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 8) — Senate President Vicente Sotto III has sought to stop requiring public teachers to pay income taxes, in a bid to ease their financial burden.
Sotto has filed Senate Bill (SB) No. 241 to amend National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, giving tax exemption privileges for teachers with salary grades of up to third level.
In a statement issued Thursday, Sotto said the bill also proposes that the holiday pay, overtime pay, night shift differential and hazard pay of these teachers would be tax-free.
He noted that SB 241 “is in consonance with the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers which aimed to promote and improve the social and economic status of public school teachers, their living and working conditions, their terms of employment and career prospects.”
The 18th Congress would also push for a salary increase of public teachers, an echo of the long-time call of some teacher groups, his statement said.
“We recognize the inevitable fact that our teachers play a crucial and significant role. The future of our youth and nation lies in the nurturing hands of our teachers.. We consider them as our modern day heroes,” Sotto said.
President Rodrigo Duterte, in his fourth State of the Nation Address in July, urged the Congress to approve the Salary Standardization Law, which will increase the pay of government employees, including public school teachers.
