MORE than two weeks after this year’s local and national elections, the Commission on Elections has yet to pay 100,000 public school teachers who served as Board of Election Inspectors and support staff, an official said Thursday.
Alliance for Concerned Teachers-Philippines chairman Benjie Valbuena said out of 475,000 teachers, 100,000 had yet to receive their P4,500 honorariums and P2,000 allowance.
“It has been three weeks now since the national elections and our teachers remain unpaid,” Valbuena said.
Meanwhile, after failing to implement mall voting in the May 9 elections, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista vowed to amend the 20-year-old election law to introduce changes, including allowing voters to cast their ballots in the malls.
“I will again push my proposal for mall voting,” Bautista said, adding he planned to have that implemented in the senatorial elections in 2019.
In the Senate, senators expressed varied reactions on the plan of the Comelec to defer the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections due to the election fatigue suffered during the May 9 elections.
Senate President Franklin Drilon and Assistant Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III said they favored the postponement of the village and youth council elections.
But Drilon said the Comelec could not decide on its own as it needed legislation from Congress.
During the May 9 national and local elections, Valbuena said, the inspector experienced so many difficulties, such as the risk of being caught in election-related violence, just to make sure that the election exercise was clean, orderly and peaceful.
“There were no food and transportation available during that time,” Valbuena said.
Some teachers on Thursday trooped to the Comelec’s main office to demand to be paid for their services.
“The winners in the senatorial and party-list posts have been proclaimed but the compensation of those who served have not yet been released,” Valbuena said.
He said teachers from 31 areas had yet to receive their honorariums and allowances.
Based on Comelec Resolution 10031, the chairman and members of the Board of Election Inspectors and the support staff members would receive per diem at the rate of P1,000 a day for three days, P500 in allowances and P2,000 for undergoing training or a total of P6,500.