New party-list with a heart for teachers to reach out to Mindanao

Long before Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte joined the presidential race, he boasted about increasing the salaries of the police, the military and the lowly teachers two-fold, even three-fold. His reason: These workers in government deserve a decent life.

For them to serve the Filipino people well and with dignity and pride, there must be food on their tables and must be able to send their children to good schools, with some savings for the so-called rainy days, to boot. This way, Duterte says matter-of-factly, they will shy away from the enticements of corruption, envy and greed.

This sounds too good to be true. But the proposition  might just encourage the police, military and the lowly teachers to gamble their votes for him. After all, no one among his four rivals has made a similar promise.

But aside from Duterte, there’s a new party list with a soft heart for government workers. Listed #90 in the Commission on Elections’ official ballot, Manila Teachers Party List, a cooperative-driven association of teachers with its vision of “Better Teacher, Better Education, Better Nation,” deserves our votes.

Manila Teachers Party List seeks to represent Filipino teachers in the halls of Congress; serve as their voice on crucial issues related to their and the nation’s betterment; and to protect and promote the interests of the Filipino teachers, unsung heroes of the nation for the longest time.

Run by retired school teachers, Manila Teachers Party List is dedicated to providing inclusive healthcare, housing, financial assistance and expanded scholarship programs for member-teachers all over the country.

For 56 long years, Manila Teachers has been doing community extension work, giving comfort and aid to a considerable number of Filipino teachers nationwide. So far, it has extended educational assistance to some 600 public school teachers for them to be able to take up master’s courses; 28 of them took master’s units under a memorandum of agreement signed between Manila Teachers and the Department of Education of Calabarzon. Manila Teachers also offers financial assistance in the amount of P40,000 for thesis writing. Also, some 326 beneficiaries taking up teaching and teaching-related courses have already been granted with four-year college scholarships.

For the last 10 years, Manila Teachers has been with Brigada Eskwela, helping in the repair of school tables and armchairs, and in cleanup of school buildings in the National Capital Region.

Manila Teachers has also launched the Search for Pambansang Guro and Ulirang Guro for 2017. The selection of which will be done after the May 9 elections with help from DepEd schools, divisions and regional offices nationwide.

Likewise, it has also launched its college incentive program, a one-time scholarship program that is transferable to the next of kin of teachers wanting to avail of soft loans. Teachers from the Visayas and Luzon have availed themselves of this program.

Manila Teachers Party List envisions to extend all these advocacies and programs to Mindanao. A party list with a heart indeed.

—RUFFY MAGBANUA, ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com