Many teachers deputized for poll duty still unpaid

Calling Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Many of the public schoolteachers who were deputized for election duty last May 13 have not received their honoraria from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), according to a teachers’ group.

Emmalyn Policarpio, secretary general of Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), said TDC has been receiving reports from all over the country about the “uneven” payment of the allowance owed to the teachers who manned the polling precincts.

Some teachers were not paid at all even as some of their colleagues from the same school received their honoraria through their Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) ATM payroll accounts, she said.

Policarpio said the delay was experienced even in Metro Manila. While some teachers in Malabon and Valenzuela received their honoraria through their ATM accounts on May 15, there are still many who have not received any, she said.

“The declaration from the Comelec chair himself (Sixto Brillantes Jr.) that they have released the payment for all those who served in the elections contradicts the real scenario in the field,” she said.

Policarpio said the teachers who followed up with the Comelec were not given a satisfactory explanation by Comelec personnel nor by the Department of Education (DepEd).

For the May 13 elections, 233,487 public schoolteachers were deputized to serve in the board of election inspectors (BEI), according to DepEd.

It said around 122,000 of those teachers would get their honoraria through bank-issued “cash cards” while most of the rest were to get their honoraria through their Landbank ATM payroll accounts.

Meanwhile, some 40,000 teachers in far-flung areas who neither have ATM accounts nor were issued cash cards were to get their honoraria from the nearest Comelec office.

The DepEd said it had already coordinated with Eduardo Mejos of the Comelec’s finance services office to address the delay in the teachers’ payment, either through the Landbank ATM accounts or cash cards as previously agreed on.

The DepEd said the teachers who have not been paid will just have to be paid in cash.