ILOILO City – A total of 5,272 teachers in this city and Iloilo province have started training to become election inspectors of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the May 13 midterm elections.
The training in five hotels here started on March 3 and will wrap up on March 24, according to Comelec-Iloilo provincial election supervisor Roberto Salazar.
As members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs), teachers are being trained to, among others, operate vote counting machines and use correctly the voter registration verification system.
Each BEI is composed of three personnel – the chairman, poll clerk and member.
According to Salazar, “98 percent” of Comelec-Iloilo’s BEIs for the midterm elections are teachers.
“They call the shots in their respective voting precincts. As Comelec’s deputies, they enforce election laws,” he stressed.
For the training, each BEI member has been allotted a transportation allowance of P2,000.
For their service on May 13, each will be receiving an honorarium (BEI chairman, P6,000; poll clerk, P5,000; member, P5,000) and P1,000 transportation allowance.
The budget will come from the national government, said Salazar./PN
