Comelec urged to give additional pay to teachers

MANILA, Philippines - Public school teachers called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to include the more than 229,000 teachers who served as board of election inspectors (BEIs) in last week’s automated polls as among those who will be given an additional P2,000 poll duty pay and not limit it to teachers who served in the random manual audit teams (RMAT).

Benjamin “Benjo” Basas, national chairperson of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition said that teacher-BEIs also deserved the additional honorarium since they also served in the frontlines and dealt with long queues brought by the ill-advised clustering of precincts by Comelec.

“The additional pay for the RMAT members is appreciated but it would have been better if they also include the teacher-BEIs who had done their share to make the elections ‘generally successful’ as what has been repeatedly declared,” Basas told The STAR.

“Everybody has been thanking the teacher-BEIs but we also want to compensate them commensurately for their excellent work,” Basas added.

He said that Comelec has already released funds for the teachers’ poll duty honorarium, expecting most, if not all of the teachers, to get the allowance today and in the next few days.