Lawmaker wants teachers freed from election duties

The country’s half-a-million public school teachers should be relieved of their poll duties, and this is why the Philippines should adopt full automation in the May 2007 mid-term elections, a party-list lawmaker said yesterday.

Once a nationwide automated system is in place, the "election process will allow teachers to render instead voluntary, and not mandatory service during elections," said Rep. Eulogio "Amang" Magsaysay, who represents the Alliance of Volunteer Educators.

"I believe that once we adopt an automated system in the conduct of the next elections, it will not be hard for us to take our teachers out of their election duties," Magsaysay said, following the passage of Senate Bill 2231 or the Automated Election System Act of 2006.

Magsaysay, who belongs to the administration bloc, said that "with the use of automated machines, we will need fewer teachers to man the polls and therefore, we can make it voluntary and no longer mandatory."

The party-list congressman pointed out this will help lessen the vulnerability of teachers — just like military men who man the precincts — to politicians. Military personnel are now totally barred from poll duties.

"Since time immemorial, we have been lobbying against the exploitation of teachers during elections," Magsaysay said. "As molders of the young inquisitive mind, teachers are considered non-partisan and more than competent to render election duties."

"At the same time, youth and other civic-oriented groups can do the job as well without imposing on anyone or dictating upon any group or sector something against its will," he explained further.

Magsaysay is one of the authors of House Bills 2864 and 2898, or the measures that allow public school teachers to concentrate on their teaching jobs, and disengage them from compulsory election duties.

The education sector representative cited many instances where the lives of teachers have been put in danger in doing their poll duties.

"Aside from the physical and mental fatigue they always endure during elections, they become subject of various forms of harassment from politicians and their supporters," he noted.

"Unlike the military who have their guns and bullets to protect them against the perils of looking after the ballots, teachers only have chalk and blackboards since their main purpose is to teach. How do you expect them to defend themselves from such threats?" he asked.

Magsaysay, however, admitted that under the Omnibus Election Code, it is still the legal mandate of public school teachers to render service during elections. "The government should study the possibility of making this service voluntary and not mandatory."

With this, Magsaysay is further pushing for the immediate release of their allowance, saying that teachers’ salaries "are not enough to support their daily living, that is why most of them have no choice but to really serve during elections."

In a statement, Magsaysay further pointed out that with the imminent danger confronting teachers, the "government should give them additional insurance coverage aside from the security personnel provided to them every time they serve in election."

During a previous election, it was reported that 18 teachers from Diosdado P. Macapagal Elementary School in Quezon City (then Tatalon Elementary School) got caught in a crossfire between local political factions.

During the 1995 polls, Filomena Tatlonghari, a public school teacher in Mabini, Batangas, was shot dead by a group of men who tried to snatch a ballot box from her.