Voluntary poll duties for teachers pushed

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Loren Legarda is pushing for a bill that would make election duties voluntary for public school teachers.

Legarda said public school teachers should be given the freedom to decide if they want to participate in the electoral process, as they have always done in the past, or stay out for any number of valid reasons.

“By giving public school teachers the freedom of deciding on their responsibilities and allowing others to participate as election officers during elections, we are following the true spirit of participatory democracy,” Legarda said.

Legarda filed Senate Bill 2516 allowing public school teachers to “refuse service as members of the Board of Election Tellers (BET) given valid health, age and security reasons.”

Once the public school teachers are allowed to stay of election duties, Legarda’s bill proposes that other sectors such as private school teachers, national government employees, members of civil society organizations and other individuals of known probity and competence be allowed to take their place as BETs.

“Those who render their services during elections will be given adequate honorarium, benefits and protection because of the high risk of the work,” Legarda said.

The honoraria would range from P1,000 to P6,000 depending on the position and a travel allowance of P1,000.

In addition, a minimum of five days service credit would accrue to all government officials and employees serving as members of the Board of Election Inspectors.

The bill also provides for other benefits to be given to the election officers, namely death benefit of P500,000 for qualified beneficiaries and medical assistance in an amount that would cover for the medical and hospitalization expenses until recovery.

Persons rendering election service would be authorized to engage the services of government or private lawyers, the fees of which would be covered by the indemnification package under the bill.

Citing data from the Department of Education, Legarda noted that up to 500,000 public school teachers are required to perform various duties during elections.