Election pay not enough, teachers complain

MANILA, Philippines—It’s not enough.

Public school teachers are complaining what they called the meager addition to the teachers’ pay for services rendered during the Oct. 28 barangay (village) elections and the special elections in Zamboanga and Bohol in November.

Benjo Basas, national chair of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition, said the additional P300 the Department of Budget and Management was giving each teacher was not commensurate with the efforts they exerted in those instances when they were exposed to harm, even death.

The amount was in addition to the P2,000 honorarium the government allotted for teachers who rendered poll duty.

The honorarium was apart from a P500 transportation allowance for each teacher, Basas said.

“So in all, a teacher is entitled to receive P2800,” he said.

According to Basas, the P300 constituted “only a small part” of the P2,000 the group had long been asking the government to add to the original P2,000 honorarium.