Comelec to give higher compensation to teachers in 2010 polls

Public school teachers who will be serving as board of election inspectors in the 2010 elections can now look forward to a higher compensation package, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Wednesday. In a press conference, Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said they met with the Department of Education (DepEd) last week and informed them of the new compensation package that public school teachers will be getting in next year’s polls. “They were quite happy with the figure we gave them," he said, adding that they have agreed that they will give the payment to the DepEd and the department will be the one to distribute it to the teachers. Larrazabal refused to say the how much they would be paying the teachers next year exactly but said that if they were to compare the P3,000 package that teachers got in the previous elections, the deal that they will get next year is definitely better. The commissioner said that last year, teachers were given a P3,000 compensation package for three days of poll work – P1,000 for each day. “It’s higher than 1000. It’s a good package," he said, adding that the new compensation package for four days of pre-election and election work will include leave credits and benefits like legal assistance and medical assistance to be provided by the Comelec itself. “You also have to remember it’s not only money, but also non-money. What we presented to the DepEd is like that, it’s not just mathematical increase," added poll body spokesman James Jimenez. Jimenez said they estimate that they will be needing about 245,000 teachers to serve as BEIs in next year’s polls. He added that there will be about 74,000 clustered precincts – each of which will need at least three BEIs. But Larrazabal was quick to note that teachers will be getting the better end of the bargain because the amount of work that they will need to do is lessened because of automation. “At the end of voting, they just need to press a few buttons. This will be less tiring for teachers," he said. The commissioner was pertaining to the “convenience" that the teachers will be experiencing because the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine will be doing the counting of the ballots and printing of the election return for them. And despite the supposed lessened risks for teachers because of automation, he said their security is still one of their priorities. “The teachers are very important, we value their security," he said. Larrazabal said they are still going to conduct several more meetings with the DepEd to discuss their training for automated polls in early February. - GMANews.TV