Party list with a heart

Ruffy Magbanua

LONG before Digong Duterte decided to join the presidential race, he boasted to increase the salaries of the police, the military and the lowly teachers two-fold, or even three-fold.

His reason of doing so is prophetic yet promising: these workers in government deserve decent living.

For them to serve well the Filipino people with dignity and pride, there must be  food on their tables, children sent to good schools and some savings securely fastened for the rainy days.

This way, he says matter-of-factly, they will shy away from the invites of corruption, envy and greed.

This sounds too good to be true.  But coming from the bad mouthing Dirty Harry of Davao, might as well encourage the police, military and the lowly teachers to  gamble their votes for Duterte.

After all, no one  from among the other four presidential candidates followed Duterte’s promise to uplift their lives – literally.

On top of Duterte’s soft heart for government workers, there is a new party list that will fight for teachers’ rights in Congress.  Listed #90 in the Comelec official ballot, Manila Teachers Party-List, a coop-driven association of teachers,  deserves our votes.

Anchored on its  vision “Better Teacher, Better Education, Better Nation”, Manila Teachers Party List vowed  to work on  reforms that would protect the interests of the Filipino teachers, long regarded as the unsung heroes of the nation.

Run by retired school teachers,  this party list for teachers will be active in delivering inclusive health care, housing, financial assistance and expanded scholarship programs for member-teachers all over the country.

Nominees Virgilio Lacson, Paul Sembrano and Dr. Gil Magbanua have committed to banner the vision and mission of the Manila Teachers Party List in the halls of Congress through expanded community services that would benefit the Filipino teachers who are in need of financial assistance, health care, scholarships, among others.

Lacson is chairman and CEO of   Manila Teachers while Sembrano and Magbanua serve as member of the  association’s board of trustees.

For 56 long years, Manila Teachers has been doing community extension work by way of giving comfort and aid to a greater number of Filipino teachers nationwide,  they said.

Manila Teachers Party List will take the opportunity to represent the teachers in the halls of Congress and serve as  the voice on issues crucial to the betterment of the teachers in particular and the nation in general.

So far, it has extended educational assistance  for masteral program to some 600 public school teachers, 28 of whom took units in the government’s masteral program following the memorandum of agreement signed between Manila Teachers and the Department of Education of Calabarzon in region 4-A. It also offers financial assistance in the amount of Php40,000 for thesis writing.

A total of 326 beneficiaries have already been granted with four-year  college scholarship grant   taking up teaching and teachingelated courses.

In the last 10 years, Manila Teachers also participated  in the Brigada Eskwela through the repair of school tables, armchairs, and the clean-up school buildings in the  National Capital Region.

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

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

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