Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Prov’l election execs takes over payment of teachers tapped for poll duties
THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Department of Education (DepEd) on Tuesday agreed to turn over to the provincial election supervisors (PES) the disbursement of the teachers’ honoraria serving as board of election inspectors (BEIs).
The agreement was reached during the conference held at the Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club on Tuesday after the two agencies threshed out the concerns of the teachers tapped by the commission for voting, canvassing and counting duties.
Comelec Commissioner Resurreccion Borra explained that the decision to remand back to the PES the disbursement of the teachers honoraria followed complaints by mentors of not being paid for services rendered in the May 2004 elections.
“In the last election, they (Deped) were not able to produce the required number of BEIs and it was us who recruited the remaining people needed as BEIs,” Borra said.
He said teachers will get P1,000 per day of service on top of the P500 transportation allowance and another P150 allocation for any “eventualities.”
He said for 250,000 precincts the commission would need about 750,000 teachers to act as BEIs.
With the Comelec to pay P1,000 each to the 750,000 BEIs, Borra said they would need P750 million as honoraria for the teachers. The Comelec's budget for the May 2007 elections is pegged at P4 billion.
He added that they are also allocating another amount for the health insurance benefits of the BEIs.
DepEd Undersecretary Vilma Labrador, for her part, said apart from the two-day service credits the teachers are entitled to once they serve as BEIs, they are also pushing for an additional three days to be credited to the teachers.
On the issue of security, Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. assured the teachers of enough protection even though they are no longer tapping the military to secure the polling precincts.
According to Abalos, military will only be deployed to areas that are infested with the by communist rebels and Moro separatists. (MSN/Sunnex)
