CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Teachers who served in the May 10 automated elections want Smartmatic-TIM to pay them P500 each for their extra work on the additional round of testing and sealing of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
“Smartmatic-TIM officials admitted that they made a mistake with the configuration of the CF cards. In the same way that they shouldered the logistical cost of recalling, reconfiguring, and redistributing the CF cards, they should likewise shoulder the cost of the extra working hours that teachers had to put in to retest and reseal the machines. It should not come from the Filipino taxpayers,” said ACT Teachers partylist president Antonio Tinio.
This, even as he lamented as “inadequate” the P500 that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced earlier as “additional honorarium” for the teachers.
“We reiterate our call for an additional P 2,000,” he said, even as he debunked the claim of election Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal that the teachers who served in the Boards of Election Inspectors (BEI) were allocated the highest honoraria in history.
The total payment initially allocated by the Comelec for each teacher is P4,300, consisting of P3,000 as election day honorarium, P500 honorarium for sealing the book of voters, P500 for testing and sealing of PCOS machines, and P300 for transportation allowance. The P500 additional honorarium recently announced by the Comelec would put the total at P4,800.
But even at P4,800, Tinio disputed Larrazabal’s claim that the payment is the highest in history.
“Teachers are being paid the same amount in 2010 as they were six years ago. The compensation is only higher this year because Comelec has given teachers additional tasks, namely the testing and sealing of PCOS machines and the sealing of the book of voters, requiring extra days of work,” Tinio noted.
He also said that the teachers’ demand for an additional P 2,000 is “ fair considering that the teachers rendered extra days of service due to additional testing and sealing of the PCOS machines, extension of voting hours by one hour on election day, and the huge workload brought about by precinct clustering. “
Tinio also insisted that the additional P500 offered by the Comelec “should not be seen as a bonus, but as fair compensation for the second round of testing and sealing of PCOS machines performed by teachers as a result of Smartmatic’s erroneous configuration of compact flash cards.”
He urged the Comelec to require Smartmatic-TIM to shoulder the compensation of teachers who had to perform an additional round of testing and sealing of PCOS machines.
“Smartmatic-TIM officials admitted that they made a mistake with the configuration of the CF cards. In the same way that they shouldered the logistical cost of recalling, reconfiguring, and redistributing the CF cards, they should likewise shoulder the cost of the extra working hours that teachers had to put in to retest and reseal the machines. It should not come from the Filipino taxpayers,” said ACT Teachers partylist president Antonio Tinio.
This, even as he lamented as “inadequate” the P500 that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced earlier as “additional honorarium” for the teachers.
“We reiterate our call for an additional P 2,000,” he said, even as he debunked the claim of election Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal that the teachers who served in the Boards of Election Inspectors (BEI) were allocated the highest honoraria in history.
The total payment initially allocated by the Comelec for each teacher is P4,300, consisting of P3,000 as election day honorarium, P500 honorarium for sealing the book of voters, P500 for testing and sealing of PCOS machines, and P300 for transportation allowance. The P500 additional honorarium recently announced by the Comelec would put the total at P4,800.
But even at P4,800, Tinio disputed Larrazabal’s claim that the payment is the highest in history.
“Teachers are being paid the same amount in 2010 as they were six years ago. The compensation is only higher this year because Comelec has given teachers additional tasks, namely the testing and sealing of PCOS machines and the sealing of the book of voters, requiring extra days of work,” Tinio noted.
He also said that the teachers’ demand for an additional P 2,000 is “ fair considering that the teachers rendered extra days of service due to additional testing and sealing of the PCOS machines, extension of voting hours by one hour on election day, and the huge workload brought about by precinct clustering. “
Tinio also insisted that the additional P500 offered by the Comelec “should not be seen as a bonus, but as fair compensation for the second round of testing and sealing of PCOS machines performed by teachers as a result of Smartmatic’s erroneous configuration of compact flash cards.”
He urged the Comelec to require Smartmatic-TIM to shoulder the compensation of teachers who had to perform an additional round of testing and sealing of PCOS machines.
