Disgruntled Comelec employees threaten protest over delayed pay

Employees of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) are threatening to stage a mass action that could jeopardize the coming May elections.

Comelec employees in the Zamboanga peninsula are particularly restive because of delayed salaries, non-payment of overtime pays and non-release of their Christmas bonus and other benefits.

The employees earlier issued a manifesto announcing their threat.

Comelec-Western Mindanao regional director Helen Aguila-Flores said other Comelec employees in Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Lucena and Negros Occidental may join them in a mass action over the same gripes. Although civil servants are not allowed to go on strike under the law, Flores said they would hold a sit-down strike if their demands are not heeded.

But according to Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos, the delay in their pay could have been caused by the sheer distance of Zamboanga, while the overtime pay had to be thoroughly scrutinized.

Abalos clarified that the 13th month pay and the social amelioration assistance have already been paid to the employees but he is still looking for funding for the Christmas bonus. Other Comelec employees in Mindanao are also complaining that some P20,000 used for a Comelec seminar which they paid for with their own money remains unreimbursed.

In an administrative complaint, Misamis Oriental provincial election supervisor Carlito Ravelo accused a staff of recently retired Comelec commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco of withholding their money, which was allegedly already released and set aside for them.

The complaint sent to Commissioner Resurreccion Borra, the commissioner-in-charge of Region 10, said that a certain Maricres Moreno has been giving them the runaround regarding their reimbursement.

In his complaint, Ravelo said Moreno promised to send the money through his ATM account but this never happened.

Moreno, on the other hand, denied that she kept the money intended for the Misamis Oriental employees. — Jose Aravilla