ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro on Sunday took a swipe at the Commission on Elections for its Resolution 10727 stating minimal increase in honoraria of election service volunteers and less benefits.
“This is very alarming considering that the Comelec just stated in a committee hearing earlier this week that voting hours for the upcoming elections would be at least 13 hours long. The Comelec through Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said in that same meeting that they would increase the honoraria of election service volunteers to at least P3,000,” she said.
Resolution 10727 Section 33 cited that the chairperson of the election board shall only receive P7,000; members, P6,000; Department of Education’s supervisor officials, P5,000, and support and medical staff, P3,000.
Such is only a P1,000 increase from the existing honoraria of election service volunteers, Castro said, adding the provision for food allowances has been removed.
“Resolution 10727 is not acceptable. This does not meet the call of our teachers, mostly election service volunteers who used to receive P10,000 for a chairperson, P9,000 for a member of the electoral board, P8,000 for a DepEd supervisor official, and P7,000 for a support staff, including a travel allowance of P3,000 to P5,000 and food allowance of P2,500,” she said.
“We would like the Comelec to clarify Section 33 of Resolution 10727. They committed in the House committee hearings that they would increase the honoraria by P3,000 but it is not reflected in the resolution they released last Nov. 10,” she said. Rio N. Araja
According to the party-list lawmaker, the resolution only included a P1,000 increase across the board, an additional P1,000 travel allowance, a P500 anti-COVID allowance, while supervisor officers and support staff are entitled to P1,500 communications allowance.
“In the House budget hearings, the Comelec also promised at least 10 days of service credits for teachers serving in the elections. The guidelines only included a minimum of 5 days,” she said