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Teachers threaten to boycott poll duties over voting issues


Militant teachers on Sunday threatened to boycott their election duties on May 10 if the government fails to work out a smooth system that will allow them to vote. The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prevent the possible disenfranchisement of thousands of teachers by allowing the reactivation of teachers who were already deactivated and the transfer of registration of those who are registered in places other than their respective work assignments. The group also appealed to the Comelec to have a special registration for teachers who are not registered at all. “We urge the Comelec to tackle and immediately resolve this matter, if not we may opt to call on our colleagues to refuse the poll assignments," said Benjo Basas, the TDC national chairperson. Teachers serve as board of election inspectors (BEIs) during elections. The automation of the May 10 nationwide polls has reduced the required number of BEIs from 800,000 to only about 250,000. According to the Comelec Resolution 8798 promulgated last March 16, teachers who will serve as BEIs have only 30 minutes to vote in their respective precincts. The resolution amended Section 12 of Comelec Resolution 8786, which states that a BEI's absence shall not be for more than 20 minutes. The resolution said that BEIs can vote “provided that they do so when the voting in their respective places of assignment is light, and their absence shall not be for more than 30 minutes." Basas said limited time had resulted to many teachers not being able to cast their votes in past elections, which eventually resulted to them being de-listed from the voters’ list. He said that because of this disenfranchisement, majority if not all teachers are not qualified to sit as members of the BEI. Election laws automatically deactivate a voter who fails to cast his votes in two consecutive national elections. Basas pointed out that several Comelec resolutions in the past had allowed teachers to cast their votes in the precincts where they are assigned, and had actually allotted three excess ballots specifically for them. He, however, claimed that the votes were not recorded by the Comelec since the teachers voted in areas where they were not registered. This, he said, also resulted to disenfranchisement of many teachers. “All teachers who have served the past elections have also cast their votes in the precincts where they are assigned as members of Board of Elections Inspector. The problem is, those votes are not reflected in the book of voters, but it’s not our fault, it’s the Comelec’s responsibility to record our votes," he said. - KBK, GMANews.TV

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