Comelec eyes more pay for teachers for village polls

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has dangled a possible additional pay for teachers who will go on election duty for the Oct. 28 barangay (village) polls.

At the formal signing of the agreement with the Department of Education deputizing at least 510,000 public school teachers for poll duty, Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said they requested for funds from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) so they can add P300 to the P2,500 honorarium promised for every teacher.

“We asked for like P170 million. It’s about P300 per teacher. But we are not sure if DBM will allow it,” he said.

The militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said the P2,500 honorarium was too small since the barangay elections would be done manually and the barangay elections are rowdier than the national elections.

The nearly 240,000 public school teachers who served as election inspectors in the automated national elections last May received P4,000 as honorarium.