The Alliance of Concerned Teachers challenges electoral candidates to stand with the education sector and fight for an agenda that will address the most pressing issues of the sector and of the nation. The 2019 elections’ relevance lies on whether it will bring meaningful change for the people, the group said in a press statement.
ACT said: “We urge candidates to join us in the just fight for SWELDO, which embodies the meaningful change education workers and the rest of the people need and deserve:
S – alary Increase
W – elfare and Benefits
E – ducation and Social Services
L – abor Rights and Lasting Peace
D – emocracy and Pro-people Development
O – wnership and Sovereignty
The midterm elections come at a time when people suffer from high prices due to imposition of additional taxes, record-high unemployment rate, waning local production with the threat of import influx, and increasing rates of poverty among Filipinos.
Unrest is an inevitable consequence of the dire economic conditions in the country, with more people continually seeking substantive changes, it said.
Such is the case of teachers and education workers who have mounted bigger demonstrations to protest lamentable conditions of teachers and of the whole education sector.
Act said: “Various forms of protests and lobbying efforts have been launched to further their fight for decent and livable salaries, as well as for sufficient budget for education and other social services.
“Education workers and advocates have joined other sectors in calling for the junking of TRAIN Law, for the protection and upholding of labor rights, for genuine agrarian reform, for the defense of our territories against foreign invasion and exploitation, and many other united call of the Filipino people.
“These just demands, however, have been met with repression and political persecution by the Duterte administration.
“The state has launched attacks aimed at stifling dissent and political expression, effectively compromising people’s democratic rights. It has utilized and weaponized the entire bureaucracy in its war against the rising Filipino people in the guise of its ‘counterterrorism campaign.’
“The clear targets of such are known vanguards of democracy, truth, and integrity in the country—teachers, journalists, lawyers, church workers, among others.”