Teachers’ poll honoraria may be out by May 24

MANILA, Philippines — Education Secretary Leonor Briones expressed her “wholehearted gratitude” to the hundreds of thousands of public school teachers and Department of Education (DepEd) non-teaching personnel who rendered poll duty in the just concluded May 9 elections.

Briones assured the teachers that DepEd is now coordinating with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the release of their election duty honoraria by May 24, a deadline which the poll body set.

“The nation has once again witnessed the bravery and dedication of our legion of educators who greatly contributed to this year’s safe and orderly conduct of elections. We are eager to return the favor to our teachers by constantly coordinating with the Commission on Elections on the release of their poll honoraria and other allowances on or before May 24, 2022, as provided for by Comelec Resolution No. 10727,” DepEd said.

“We will also honor the five days service credit for those who served in the elections,” it added.

The DepEd said that the Election Task Force, headed by Undersecretary Alain Pascua, with Director Marc Bragado as operations head, has proposed to Comelec an additional pay of P3,000 across the board for the extra hours rendered by some teachers due to vote counting machine (VCM) and SD card issues.

DepEd stressed that Comelec is responsible for the processing and releasing of election-related honoraria.

“Nonetheless, DepEd is proactively finding ways to further compensate our teachers for their services during elections guided by the policies of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Commission on Audit (COA), and with the help of Congress,” DepEd said.

Comelec readying additional honoraria

Comelec Commissioner George Garcia said the poll body is allocating around P16 million to P20 million for the granting of additional honoraria to teachers affected by technical glitches.

“We’re trying to find out how many were involved in the precincts, electoral boards, technicians and support staff,” Garcia said in Filipino.

Acting Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco, however, said how much the teachers will receive still depends on the availability of funds and regulations.

Laudiangco said the commission received from Briones a letter requesting an additional P3,000 honoraria for teachers who served beyond their duty hours due to technical glitches.

“Per their letter yes, it is a P3,000 additional honoraria, but then again the amount will be subject to the availability of funds and, of course, in accordance with accounting and auditing rules. Because there are rules that we follow when it comes to that,” Laudiangco said in a press briefing yesterday.

“Again, this is not overtime pay, as overtime pay is not allowed, and this is also not across the board, not for all electoral boards, only for those affected by VCM issues and had encountered a delay on account of that,” he added.

Laudiangco said the Comelec has identified and counted the number of teachers who will receive additional honoraria. Incidence of technical glitches, he said, is only isolated and accounts for only 0.8 percent of the total 106,174 electoral boards nationwide.

In the 2019 elections, Laudiangco said, the commission granted P2,000 additional honoraria to teachers assigned in areas where technical glitches occurred.

“I believe the figure then was P2,000, if I’m not mistaken. That’s 2019. There’s no decision yet as to the 2022 elections,” he said.

The Comelec en banc, he said, is just awaiting the assessment from the Finance Services before making the decision on DepEd’s request for additional honoraria. – Mayen Jaymalin