Teachers in May polls to receive ‘biggest compensation ever’

Teachers who served as Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) in the recently concluded elections will get an additional P500 as compensation for their services, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Tuesday. In an interview with reporters, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said that BEIs would be receiving a total of P4,800 for their services — the biggest compensation package ever given to teachers who served during elections. Larrazabal said the Comelec would be shouldering the cost of the payment but that the Department of Education would be in charge of distributing the money. Larrazabal, however, appealed to the teachers for patience in the delay since the money may not have reached the proper channels yet. "What we'd like to request is if they have any concerns tell us and we will give them special attention and they will be paid," he said. The BEIs were only supposed to receive P4,300 in cash plus leave credits as pay for their service during the polls. However, several teachers' organizations asked the poll body to increase their compensation. The BEIs are the government personnel in each polling precinct tasked with assisting voters and counting the votes at the precinct level. They are traditionally public school teachers. Teachers serving as BEIs have an array of new tasks associated with election duty, including distributing and explaining long, multiple-choice ballots to voters and operating the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines used in the automated elections. — Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV