Education Secretary Armin Luistro. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Education Secretary Armin Luistro has appealed to politicians and their supporters not to intimidate the teachers serving in today’s national elections.
According to Luistro, most of the time, losing politicians claim to have been cheated with teachers bearing the brunt of their anger and disappointment of candidates.
“Our teachers are only doing their jobs. If there are those who will commit any wrongdoing, there is an outlined process for such incidences so don’t harass or threaten our teachers. Document it and go through the process but please do not put pressure or harass the teachers because they have been trained and I’m sure they will do their jobs very well,” he said in a recent interview.
The Department of Education (DepEd) has activated today its election task force that would provide teachers adequate information, and technical and legal assistance to perform their duties as members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI). The task force, which is operational until Tuesday, can also be used by teachers to report any untoward incident on the ground to the DepEd for proper intervention.
Legal assistance
Should any BEI member face an election-related suit, Luistro said that the department, through its partnership with the Public Attorney’s Office, would be ready to provide free legal assistance.
At the same time, Luistro appealed to the teachers to be neutral and nonpartisan and to “continue that long tradition of objectivity and of effective service” during the elections.
Over 277,000 teachers have been tapped to help in the peaceful and orderly conduct of the polls. The chair and members of the BEI will be given by the Commission on Elections an honorarium of P4,500 while their support staff will get P1,500. DepEd supervisors, on the other hand, will receive P3,000. The Comelec has also allocated P30 million for election-related deaths or injuries sustained by DepEd and non-DepEd personnel in the performance of their duties. In the event of death, the victims’ heirs will get P200,000. With Apec Sta. Ana