Rep. Antolin “Lenlen” A. Oreta III of the Lone District of Malabon City has filed House Bill No. 11209, which would set the minimum monthly salary of public school teachers at ₱50,000.
The House Bills and Index Service stamped the measure as e-filed on September 8, 2026, at 4:54 p.m., during the Second Regular Session of the Twentieth Congress.
Titled “An Act Increasing the Minimum Salaries of Public School Teachers to P50,000 and Appropriating Funds Therefor,” the measure covers pay levels, yearly adjustments, and funding.
What the bill provides
Section 2 sets the minimum monthly salary for public school teachers at ₱50,000, or the equivalent of Salary Grade 15 under the Salary Standardization Law, as amended, whichever is higher. Salaries of those in higher positions would be adjusted accordingly.
Under Section 3, teachers’ salaries would be adjusted annually to keep pace with the cost of living. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) would consult teachers’ unions and organizations before recommending the necessary appropriations to Congress.
Section 4 directs the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, and the DBM to issue implementing rules after consulting teachers’ groups.
Funding for the first year would come from current appropriations, according to Section 5. Later years would be covered by the General Appropriations Act. Section 8 provides that the law would take effect 15 days after publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.
Figures cited in the explanatory note
Oreta’s explanatory note says a Teacher I earns ₱30,024 a month, compared with a family living wage of ₱36,510 for a household of five. It puts the number of teachers in Teacher I to Teacher III positions at about 803,272, citing DBM and Department of Education data from the 2022 Manpower Information System.
For comparison, officials in Salary Grades 31 to 33 earn between ₱293,191 and ₱438,844 a month, according to the same document. Teachers received increases of 4.95 percent to 5.6 percent under recent salary standardization tranches, while military and uniformed personnel had their salaries doubled under the Duterte administration, it adds.
On inflation, the explanatory note cites a Philippine Statistics Authority report that the consumer price index in the National Capital Region reached 123.9 in May 2025. By that measure, goods that cost ₱100 in 2018 now cost ₱123.90. Many teachers choose to work abroad, where they can earn three to eight times their current salaries, the document states.
Oreta argues that the 2020 and 2024 amendments to the Salary Standardization Law did not raise teachers’ pay enough, and that the bill would also address distortions created by the increases given to military and uniformed personnel.
In the document’s words: “Passing this measure transcends the issue of wages; it is a matter of fairness, dignity, and justice.”
Status
No committee referral or hearing schedule appears on the filed copy. To become law, the bill must pass both the House and the Senate and receive the President’s signature.
