Comelec asked to set teachers’ training early

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Provincial Schools Division Supt. Arden Monisit is requesting the Commission on Elections to set the schedule of trainings for teachers who will serve as members of the Board of Election Inspectors in the May 2016 local and national elections.

Monisit said it would be better if Comelec can set the dates early to avoid conflict in DepEd’s ongoing training for teachers now that the K to 12 program will be implemented fully by June 2016 with the entry of senior high school. At present, teachers are going through a series of in-service trainings every month to prepare for next school year.

“Mas nagka-busy ron kay this June 2016, mag-start na ta sa Grades 11 and 12,” he said.

“Mag-agad ra mi sa ila. Kon puede bisag tentative schedules lang,” he added.

Like in the 2013 elections, Monisit said he will serve again as member of the BEI in Cebu province next year.

 Monisit recalled that they underwent a general orientation on election guidelines and technical training in handling the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

Election officer lawyer Ferdinand Gujilde said the schedule of training and orientation will be decided by the Comelec central office but said it will only be for about two days, depending on the technology to be used in the next year’s polls.

He said Comelec is considering of leasing vote-counting machines called optical mark reader (OMR), which reportedly uses the same technology as the precinct count optical scan, which was used in the past elections.

The leasing of new 93,000 OMR machines for the 2016 elections came after the public biddings to refurnish the PCOS machines failed.

The Supreme Court has ruled to temporarily stop the P268 million extended warranty contract of Comelec with Smartmatic-Total Information Management consortium for the full diagnostics and refurbishment of the 80,000 PCOS machines supposedly for the 2016 elections.

Comelec reportedly violated the procurement law when it awarded to Smartmatic-TIM the contract for the repair, refurbishment and maintenance of the vote-counting machines, without public bidding.

Monisit

 Meanwhile, in an order dated October 1, DepEd reinstated Monisit officially as Schools Division Superintendent of Cebu province.

 Monisit said he only received the order last Monday since he went to Manila last week for a superintendent training.

 Although the order did not cite any specific reason, Monisit believes the support of Governor Hilario Davide III for him to stay paved the way for his reinstatement.

 It can be remembered that Davide insisted to keep Monisit to stay instead of the newly-installed Department of Education Provincial Schools Division Superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud.

Davide earlier said he was satisfied with the performance of Monisit, adding he would send a letter to DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro requesting to retain him.

Angtud has also been reinstated as the Cebu City Schools Division superintendent. – (FREEMAN)