ILOILO – A total of 14,955 teaching and non-teaching personnel of the Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Division Office (SDO) of Iloilo province have been selected to serve as poll workers in barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on Monday, Oct. 30.
SDO-Iloilo Superintendent Dr. Ernest Servillon Jr. said the almost 15,000 teaching and non-teaching personnel are ready to serve as poll workers or electoral boards (formerly the board of election inspectors).
Their training, headed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), has concluded. It focused on the orientation of the manual election process, how to conduct voting, and how to count and canvass votes.
According to Servillon, the classrooms in the province are being prepared to serve as polling precincts, and this weekend, the teachers will set them up by placing chairs and tables, among others.
“May mga gin-appoint ang Comelec nga mga DES [Department of Education Supervisors], but I will be monitoring the conduct of the election,” said Servillon when asked by Panay News if he will personally be in schools to check the situation.
He added that school schedules would be modified as per the memorandum ordered by Atty. Michael Wesley T. Poa, undersecretary and chief of staff of DepEd.
“To allow teachers to participate in activities in celebration of World Teachers’ Day on Oct. 5 and give them ample time to complete election related duties for the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections on Oct. 30, all in-person classes in public elementary and secondary schools, including community learning centers for the Alternative Learning System (ALS), shall shift to the various blended learning modalities (i. e. blended learning modalities, asynchronous) on the following dates:
* Oct. 5, 2023
* Oct. 31, 2023
* Nov. 3, 2023
Earlier this month, Comelec Region director, Atty. Dennis Ausan, said that the region will have more or less 50,000 electoral boards for 5,622 clustered precincts.
Each clustered polling precincts will have three electoral boards composed of a chairperson, a poll clerk and a third member.
Under Comelec Resolution No. 10727, the chairperson and members of the electoral boards, the DepEd Supervising Official (DESO) and their respective support staff and medical personnel shall be entitled to the following honoraria:
* EB chairperson – P7,000
* EB members – P6,000
* DESO – P5,000
* support staff – P3,000
* medical personnel – P3,000
The EB chair and members, DESO and support staff will also receive P2,000 travel allowance — P1,000 on the day of final testing and sealing of the voting machines and P1,000 on election day.
On the other hand, medical personnel will receive P1,000 travel allowance on election day./PN
