CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Some 240,000 teachers to be fielded in the coming May elections nationwide want an increase of polls duty pay from P4,000 to P6,000 amid the rising cost of living, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) party list Rep. Antonio Tinio said yesterday.
“The pay of teachers who go on polls duty has remained the same since 2004 despite the increase in cost of living,” Tinio lamented in a telephone interview with Punto.An increase of P2,000 more would require a budget of about P480 million for the 240,000 teachers.
Tinio said that while the budget of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) does not provide for any election duty pay increase, he is hopeful that the needed funds could be derived from the savings of the commission.
“The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released some P4 billion worth of savings of the Comelec and we want assurance that part of this could be committed for the increase in the polls duty pay of the teachers,” he said.
The P4-billion savings, he stressed, should be used not only for hardware purchases but also for the increase of pay of teachers to be fielded in the coming elections.
Tinio noted that polls automation in the 2010 elections reduced the number of teachers manning precincts nationwide from about 700,000 to only 240,000.
“But that doesn’t mean the teachers are now less burdened. On the contrary, they are more burdened since automation led to more precinct clusters catering to four times the number of voters before automation,” he said.
About P960 million is budgeted for the pay of the 240,000 teachers in the coming polls at P4,000 each.
Another P480 million could be derived from the P4-billion savings of the Comelec to increase their pay to P6,000 each, Tinio noted.
This, even as Tinio also appealed to the Comelec, the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to “institutionalize” free legal assistance to teachers who are “legally harassed” usually by losers in elections.
“There are still cases wherein teachers are left on their own in shouldering legal costs in cases filed against them by losing candidates, especially in barangay elections,” he said.
He also appealed to law enforcement authorities to take into consideration the security of teachers on poll duty in the coming elections.
