Teachers backbone of elections — Comelec

Whether in national and local elections, teachers serve as the backbone of  electoral processes in the country.

This is how Commission on Elections spokesperson Atty. Rex Laudiangco described the role of every teacher participating as election officers during elections.

"They are the backbone of elections. Of course along with our Philippine National Police," Laudiangco told the media at the Quezon City Journalists' Forum  yesterday at the Quezon City Hall.

Laudiangco said like in the coming October 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections some of the teachers will sacrifice more.

"We have three pilot areas for this election. The automated voting, the mall voting and the early voting," Laudiangco said adding that the early voting is being piloted for senior citizens, persons with disabilities and heavily pregnant women who will cast their votes earlier than the regular voters.

"We only have two areas for this (early voting) pilot testing areas. But the teachers in these pilot areas will surely wake up as early as 3 a.m. or much earlier," he said.

Laudiangco added that early voting is slated from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. to give way for the three voters' category mentioned.

Compensating the teachers

The hardships of being elections officers of teachers was the reason why the Comelec had increased the allowances they should receive.

"They (teachers) would now be compensated with P10,000 compared to last time's P8,000, for being a Board of Electoral Inspector or the one in-charge in every polling precinct," Laudiangco said.

Those who would act as their assistant, according to him will receive P9,000 and the poll staff will get P8,000 to P6,000.

Laudiangco said the increase was due to the Election Service Reform Act. The manner of paying the teachers for their election service was also improved.

"They will receive it right away through payroll system. We will not use ATM cards or cash cards anymore, because in some inter-island areas, they don't have Land Banks or any other banks forcing them to go somewhere else for their fees," he explained adding that the money will be delivered to the teachers election officers who made the list of their payroll.

In Quezon City, a total of 12,488 teachers will be mobilized to facilitate the BSKE, with 11,709 of them acting as BEIs.

Dr. Heidee Ferrrer, chief education supervisor from the Quezon City School superintendent's Office said unlike in other areas, teachers from the city would not take some risk in managing the election process.

"The Quezon City Police District has already assessed and mentioned during our fifth joint coordination meeting that the BSKE in the city this coming election would be safe and orderly," Ferrer explained.