Teachers serving in barangay, SK polls to get higher allowances

FILE PHOTO: Comelec chair George Erwin Garcia. INQUIRER FILES

Teachers serving in the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections will receive a higher honorarium, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced on Thursday.

In a press briefing, Comelec Chair George Garcia said that election board chairpersons, members and support staffers in the Oct. 30 polls would each get P10,000, P9,000 and P8,000, respectively.

Under the Election Service Reform Act of 2016 or Republic Act No. 10756, the honorariums for election board chairs, members and support personnel were set at P6,000, P5,000 and P4,000, respectively, although the law specified that the rates should be reviewed by the Comelec and the Department of Education (DepEd) every three years.

READ: Comelec: Teachers serving in 2023 Barangay and SK polls to get higher pay

Garcia commented that the current honorariums were “very small” and vowed to “find ways based on savings and other available funds to make it P10,000, P9,000 and P8,000.”

“We shall make the allowance the same as that received by teachers who serve in automated elections,” he said.

Garcia noted that since the votes for the barangay and SK elections would be counted manually, the teachers would end up being on duty usually until early the next day.

He said the Comelec would use its savings from past procurement projects and cost cutting measures to provide the teachers with higher allowances.

As for the DepEd’s request to the advance payment for the allowances of teachers who would be manning the polling precincts, Garcia said that he would leave this to the Commission on Audit (COA).

READ: Comelec says advance payment of teachers’ honoraria not allowed

“In 2004 we did that but some teachers did not report for duty for whatever reason and the money was no longer returned … So if COA will allow [the advance payment], we will do that,” he said.