Comelec OKs additional pay for teachers in areas with delayed polls

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has decided to give additional compensation to teachers acting as members of Boards of Election Tellers (BET) in areas where barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls were postponed. At a press briefing Tuesday, Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the Comelec en banc has approved the additional P1,000 for teachers as compensation for their extra day of work due to poll delays in more than 2,400 villages nationwide. "We have unanimously approved the proposal to provide additional compensation for teachers or individuals who serve as BET in clustered precincts where elections were postponed," Larrazabal said. The additional amount will come on top of the P2,000 compensation that will be given to all teachers who served as BET members during Monday’s polls, according to Larrazabal. The poll body earlier had to poll additional P1,000 for all teachers who will serve in the grassroot polls from its own budget, for it found the P1,000 alloted by Congress to BET members "too low" to compensate the teachers. The Comelec also asked President Benigno Aquino III last week to raise the compensation for every teacher who served during Monday’s polls to P3,000 — or an additional P1,000 aside from the amount allotted by Congress and from the poll body’s funds. (See: Comelec wants higher pay for teachers for Oct 25 polls) Grassroots polls in 2,460 of the 42,025 barangays in the country were postponed Monday, primarily due to the delay in the delivery of election materials and the damage caused by last week’s Typhoon Juan in parts of northern Luzon. (See: Barangay, SK polls postponed in 1,732 villages) A total of 2,252 barangays where elections were earlier postponed have successfully opened polls on Tuesday morning, while 168 others will hold their elections on Wednesday, according to Comelec data. — RSJ, GMANews.TV