Comelec wants higher pay for teachers for Oct 25 polls

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday asked President Benigno Aquino III to grant an additional pay of P1,000 for every teacher who will serve in the October 25 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls. "Our assurance to them (teachers) is a minimum of P2,000. Now if we can get an additional P1,000 from the Office of the President, that will be at par with the 2010 elections," Comelec chairman Jose Melo said after the signing of a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Education (DepEd). Melo explained that Congress only approved a budget of P1,000 as compensation for every teacher who will serve as a Board of Election Inspector (BEI) in the October 25 polls. He said they already pooled from the poll body's own funds to give the BEIs an additional P1,000, giving them a total of P2,000. However, he said this is still low compared to the P4,300 plus leave credits received by BEIs who served in the 2010 automated polls. "As much as possible we want the teachers to be compensated fully, satisfactorily but in this particular elections, there is lack of funds," Melo said. Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro, for his part, gave assurances that the DepEd will also exert more effort to give teachers additional pay. "We will also work to ensure that our teachers who will perform this civic duty will helpfully be taken cared of and be compensated satisfactorily," Luistro said in an interview with reporters. Melo likewise underscored the importance of teachers during polls. "Teachers are our indispensible partners during elections. We're useless without the other. We cannot conduct elections without the teachers and teachers cannot conduct elections by themselves," he said. The BEIs are the government personnel in each polling precinct tasked with assisting voters and counting the votes at the precinct level. The BEIs are traditionally public school teachers. — RSJ, GMANews.TV