Statement - Teachers ask for additional poll duty allowance

CEBU, Philippines - Few days after the generally successful conduct of the first-ever fully automated elections in the country, teachers reminded the Comelec of their poll duty honorarium and asked for a 50% additional payment. The Teachers' Dignity Coalition (TDC) revealed that as of yesterday, only few teachers from several localities reported that they have received said honorarium.

It is quite ironic that everyone, even Comelec agrees that the success of the recently concluded elections was largely attributed to the teachers, yet the compensation for our hardwork is not prioritized," said Benjo Basas, the group's chairperson who also served as Board of Elections Inspectors (BEI) chairman in one of the clustered precincts in Caloocan City.

According to the memorandum of agreement between the Comelec and DepEd, teachers who served the elections as BEI would be entitled to a P3,000 honorarium and allowances in the amount of P500 for the sealing of book of voters, P500 for the sealing and testing of PCOS machines and P300 for transportation.

The group expressed their gratitude to all sectors - including the international community, the media, the Comelec and the Smartmatic itself who never failed to acknowledge the very significant role of public school teachers in their assessment of the conduct of the polls.

In a formal letter to the Comelec yesterday TDC said, "The praises for our work were really inspiring. However, we would be more appreciative if the Commission would be sensitive enough to provide other means of gratification like in the form of additional compensation."

It continued, "It is known to the Commission and to everybody that the tasks given to us were not easy, considering that this automated system of elections was the first in the country. It exposed us to many challenges- both physical and psychological- especially during the voting period, which was extended by an hour. Most of us teachers started our election duty in the late hours of May 9 when we get the election paraphernalia from respective city halls and ended our task at the dawn of May 11 for the retrieval of the CF Cards and ERs to the canvassing centers."

The teachers' average work was a straight 30 hours, without any amount of sleep.

"Our members in the field are complaining and we all agree that P3,000.00 honorarium for BEIs and the P1,500.00 for the support staff is not enough to compensate the amount of work delivered. We humbly ask the Comelec to grant us the additional compensation equivalent to 50% honorarium for all those who served the May 10, 2010 elections."

The group believes that the Comelec and the budget department could provide their request.

"The Comelec has enough funds for the compensation of the pollworkers, because from 800,000 BEIs in the manual polls, they hired some 240,000 for this automated election, thus giving us heavier manual tasks, the only automated here is the vote appreciation and counting. They save money at the expense the teachers, by sacrificing our welfare."

The group said Commissioner Sarmiento told them that it would be tackled in their en banc meeting as long as the request is formal while Commissioner Larazabal committed to lobby for it in the Commission.

Benjo Basas

National Chairperson

Teachers' Dignity Coalition