"IT'S only a system glitch, but the cash card is not empty."
This was the statement of Bacolod City Election Registrar Mavil Majarucon-Sia on Thursday, May 17, after some of the teachers who served during the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in the city failed to withdraw their honoraria.
On May 16, about 846 chairpersons of the electoral board in Bacolod City received their cash cards and three of them on Thursday, May 17, returned to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) local office after they failed to withdraw the honoraria worth P6,100.
Majarucon-Sia said Bacolod has a total of 2,820 teachers who served as chairpersons and members of electoral boards in various polling precincts and most of them have already received its honoraria Thursday, May 17, at the Bacolod Arts and Youth Sports Center (Bay Center).
"The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) bank is only experiencing a system glitch, which we cannot prevent, but the cash card is not empty," she said.
For those who fail to withdraw the cash, the teachers should go to the Comelec office and fill out the Certificate of Election Service Rendered form that will be submitted to DBP, Majarucon-Sia said.
"They should not worry because they will be paid and hopefully, the Manila office will realize that this is the second time it happened, so I hope next time it would not be a cash card to pay the teachers to avoid a similar problem," she said.
She added that anytime, the teachers can claim their cash cards at the Bay Center or at Comelec office.
Meanwhile, the Comelec is still validating the lists of the winning candidates for barangay and SK elections.
Majarucon-Sia said they can only release the official lists of the winning candidates after the encoding on their system.
She said there were some candidates in Barangays 15, 21, and 26 who were not proclaimed because they were tied in the results.
The Comelec will hold a coin toss on Monday at the Bay Center to break the tie. (MAP)