More than 8,500 teachers and school heads in Western Visayas took their oaths before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday, the biggest single batch of promotions processed under the government’s Expanded Career Progression program since its national rollout began.
The ceremony at Villareal Stadium in Roxas City came after similar rites were held in Cebu, Davao, and Eastern Visayas, bringing the total number of educators promoted nationwide under the ECP to more than 79,000.
Marcos used the platform to lay out a direct commitment: that the promotion pipeline would keep moving until no teacher was left retiring at the rank where they started. He framed the ECP not as a one-time exercise but as a structural fix to a system that had long kept educators stuck in place, with defined pathways now available for both classroom teachers and those moving into school leadership.
“Asahan ninyo… na ang inyong pamahalaan ay hindi titigil sa pagkilos upang matiyak na kayo ay naaalagaan, nabibigyan ng pagkakataong umunlad, at kinikilala sa inyong serbisyo,” the President told the assembled educators.
He also pointed to a broader set of changes his administration says are already in motion — among them the hiring of more than 61,000 teachers, a P10,000 teaching allowance, a reduction in non-teaching administrative work, and expanded housing assistance.
Marcos described teachers as “second parents” to the nation’s children and called on the newly promoted officials to approach their expanded responsibilities with a clear sense of purpose.
