Comelec: 49.1 million voters so far

MANILA, Philippines - At least 49.1 million voters have registered for next year’s elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the figure does not include voters in 22 municipalities that have not yet submitted their official list of voters.

In some of the 22 towns, the Election Registration Boards are still holding hearings.The board is in charge of eliminating voters with double and multiple

registrations.

In 2007, some 45 million voters took part in the electoral exercise.

The Comelec would need some 240,000 teachers to man a total of 74,000 polling precincts as members of the Board of Election Inspectors, according to Larrazabal.

The poll body would have some 8,000 spare precinct count optical scan machines since it ordered 82,200 units from the joint venture Smartmatic International Corp. and Total Information Management Corp.

Larrazabal said they already met with officials of the Department of Education to discuss the package of compensation that would be given to teachers.

“With regard to compensation they were quite happy with the figures we gave them,” he said.

Larrazabal said the Comelec has agreed to increase the honoraria of teachers, who used to receive P1,000 per day of service as BEI. “For the amount of work, they get more value now as compared to the previous election,” he said.

Before, the teachers served for only three days, but with the automated polls, they would serve for four days, including the day for the mock election.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said aside from monetary compensation, the teachers could also enjoy other benefits like medical insurance and additional leave credits.

“It’s not just the money,” he said.

“There’s also non-money (benefits). They don’t just get honoraria they also get leave credits and all these benefits that would not be given to them if they did not serve in the election. What the commission is talking about is really the whole compensation package and not just how much money they are going to make.”