MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday that only about 66,000 teachers who served as Board of Elections Inspectors (BEIs) in the May 9 polls have not received their honoraria.
Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said that 410,000 of the 476,000 BEIs have already been paid, contrary to claims of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers that a total of 100,000 have not received their honoraria.
“About 86 percent have been paid. So, some 14 percent remains to be unpaid,” said Bautista.
For the recent polls, the BEI chairman and two members and the support staff were supposed to receive an allowance of P1,000 a day for three days; P500 each for the verification and sealing of the Book of Voters, final testing and sealing of the vote counting machines and transportation allowance; and P2,000 for undergoing training for a total of P6,500.
Bautista said Comelec had allocated and deposited P1.745 billion in the Land Bank of the Philippines and P1.5 billion of it has been claimed, leaving a balance of P245 million, which constitutes the amount necessary to pay the remaining 14 percent of the BEIs.
The poll chief said the geographical locations of the teachers and the banks could be the primary reasons the honoraria have not yet been withdrawn.
He said the debit cards were supposed to be distributed to the BEIs by the Comelec’s field officials but “sometimes, the distance is far away and it takes a bit of time before the distribution is made.”
“There’s also the possibility that the BEI has already received the debit cards but has not yet encashed it with the bank. Again, mainly because of geographical issues,” he added.