Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila.
MANILA, Philippines — After largely failing to fill numerous open positions, the House of Representatives wondered why the Commission on Elections (Comelec) requests new items.
Zamboanga Sibugay Rep. Wilter Y. Palma, of the 1st District, asked Comelec about the vacancies during a hearing with the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms regarding several house bills that aimed to reorganize the agency in terms of employment and offices.
“Can I ask the Comelec? Ano nangyari sa 20%? Bakit hindi na fill-up? We’re asking for the creation of new items and yet may backlog of 20%. Can we have the reasons why?” said Palma.
(Can I ask the Comelec? What happened to the 20%? We’re asking for the creation of new items and yet there is a backlog of 20%, can we have the reasons why?)
Representing Comelec is Tonette Rivera from the agency’s Office of the Chairman. She explained that Comelec is still putting together a position paper regarding the matter.
“We’ve already coordinated with the personnel department and [financial] services division and they are also giving inputs to the position paper we will be submitting to the committee, discussing among others, the issue of the unfilled positions,” said Rivera.
Mountain Province Rep. Maximo Y. Dalog Jr. offered his observations regarding the unfilled positions, believing it to be due to low salaries.
“Kaya considering the provincial election supervisor and the election officers of highly urbanized cities and capital towns are lawyers, pero ang baba po ng salary grade nila.
Kaya one of these reasons for the reorganization is to likewise upgrade their salaries to be at par with other agencies. Kasi marami pong umaalis sa Comelec ay ang lawyer position ay mababa masyado,” said Dalog.
(Considering that the provincial election supervisor and the election officers of highly urbanized cities and capital towns are lawyers, their pay is low. One reason for a reorganization is to likewise upgrade their salaries to be at par with other agencies. That is why a lot of people leave Comelec, the lawyer position is too low).
House Bills (HB) 125, 130, 279, 1144, 1202, 1219, 1378, 2503, and 4482 all have similar goals of reorganizing Comelec’s positions.
Negros Occidental 4th District Rep. Juliet Marie de Leon filed HB 125, which “proposes for the upgrading of positions and provision of adequate payment for the employees to be at par with equivalent positions in other government agencies.”
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