Teachers on poll duty to get free legal assistance, if...

MANILA, Philippines - Public school teachers and non-teaching personnel serving in the elections will receive free legal assistance from the Department of Education (DepEd) in case of harassment.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said DepEd is closely coordinating with the Public Attorney’s Office, Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Commission on Elections, Philippine National Police, and the Armed Forces.

The Election Task Force Operations Center at the DepEd central office in Ortigas, Pasig, will receive and make the appropriate referral or coordination, act on complaints or calls for assistance from public school teachers or DepEd non-teaching personnel.

Education Undersecretary for Legal and Legislative Affairs Alberto Muyot said the Comelec will pay teachers once they complete their poll duty.

The Comelec was expected to deposit the money with the Land Bank of the Philippines, he added.

Muyot said the money is to be released through the teachers’ automated teller machine (ATM) accounts.

Other modes of payment will be through Land Bank or United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) cash cards, he added.

Muyot said the Comelec has also allocated P30 million for election-related death or injury insurance benefits for DepEd and non-DepEd personnel serving in the polls, with death benefits set at P200,000.

About 233,487 public school teachers are to sit as chairmen or member of the board of election inspectors (BEI).

Other teachers and non-teaching DepEd personnel will also serve as poll supervisor or support staff, PCOS (precinct count optical machine) technicians, and as members of the random manual audit teams.

Chairpersons and members of BEIs are expected to get a total of P4,000: P3,000 honorarium, P500 testing and sealing of the PCOS machine payment, and P500 transportation allowance.

Teachers will also be given three-day service credits for their poll duty.

Those serving as member of the BEI support staff are to get P1,500 as honorarium; election supervisors P3,000; and DepEd supervisors and superintendents serving as members of the city or municipal, district, provincial or regional Board of Canvassers P5,000.

Members of the random manual audit are to get P2,000 as honorarium.

As of noon yesterday, the Election Task Force Operations Center’s call center monitoring database reported that a teacher serving as member of the BEI was shot and killed in Isabela yesterday.