Budget Secretary Florencio Abad. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Here’s good news for the nearly 500,000 public school teachers nationwide who served as inspectors in the October barangay (village) election.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has given the Commission on Elections (Comelec) the green light to use over P150 million of its savings to pay each teacher an additional P300 in honorarium for their election service.
The “positive development” was relayed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sunday by Comelec Commissioner Grace Padaca, who cited a Dec. 20 letter to the poll agency from Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.
In his letter to Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr., Abad said that as requested by the commission, the allotment “shall be used exclusively for expenses covered by the 2013 national and local elections.”
“Based on the documents presented (by the Comelec), expenses for the barangay elections are included in the breakdown for the 2013 national and local elections. Accordingly, we confirm the use of the said unobligated balance for any of the activities related to the conduct of the elections, subject to applicable laws, rules and regulations,” Abad said.
Public school teachers who manned voting precincts during the Oct. 28 barangay elections nationwide and the Nov. 25 special barangay polls in Bohol and Zamboanga City were each paid a P2,500 honorarium.
In October, the Comelec sought the DBM’s approval to give each teacher an additional P300.
In the May 2013 national elections, teacher-inspectors in the automated polling each received P4,000.
The Department of Education said that teachers who served in the Board of Election Tellers, or BETs, were entitled to an honorarium of P2,000 to be provided by the Comelec and transportation allowance of P500 paid by local government units.
The Comelec had also set aside P30 million for election-related deaths or injuries that may be sustained by DepEd personnel in the performance of election-related duties.
On Oct. 29, the day after the barangay polls, the militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) assailed the Comelec for the delay in paying an undisclosed number of teachers all over the country.
“Time and again, our teachers showed their undying passion to serve our country despite the dismal pay they are receiving from the government,” said ACT national president Benjie Valbuena.
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