Comelec starts releasing honoraria for BEIs

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections has started releasing the honoraria for public school teachers who have served as Board of Election Inspectors during the May 10 elections but the support staff may have to wait a little more because the budget for their honoraria was not included in the amount released last week.

Lawyer Marcel Sarno, election officer of Mandaue City, however said he is already working for its release within the week. Sarno was in Manila yesterday to follow up on the honoraria of the support staff.

Each support staff is entitled to P1,500 honoraria and three days service credits as mandated under Comelec Resolution no. 8786. Members of the BEIs on the other hand are entitled to a total of P4,300 each including the P3,000 honorarium and allowances in the amount of P500 for the sealing of book of voters, P500 for the sealing and testing of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines and P300 for transportation.

Sarno said that the honoraria of support staff may not be deposited in teachers’ account, as some of them have no ATM accounts, but may be manually disbursed through the election officers in areas where they served.

In Cebu City, each precinct was assigned three support staff. There are 1,680 teachers who served as support staff during the elections in all 560 clustered precincts in the city.

Comelec provincial supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano yesterday started releasing the honoraria for the province. The amount was released to the different election officers in the municipalities and component cities.

In a separate development, members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers are expected to hold a conference today to demand the immediate release of the honoraria for the BEIs and the support staff.

“It has been more than a week since we conducted our first and historical automated national elections and that almost all election winners have been proclaimed. Unfortunately, until now, we haven’t received yet even a single centavo of our 2010 elections’ honoraria,” lamented Glodel Dexter Flores, ACT provincial coordinator.

“Comelec rules and guidelines provide that honorarium will be given upon returning all election materials and paraphernalia,” he added.

Flores said that during the press conference, they will also air their clamor for the additional P2,000 honorarium for teachers who have served continuously for more than 30 hours last election. – Jessica Ann R. Pareja with Correspondent Johanna T. Natavio/FPL   (FREEMAN NEWS)