DESPITE clear indications that the coming elections will be among the most challenging in recent history due to the pandemic, the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) proposed 2022 budget was cut by P15 billion.
Let’s be straight to the point. Cutting the budget is a bad idea. It is always those on the ground who suffer the effects of paltry funding and poor planning, despite being the very backbone of facilitating the people’s exercise of their right to vote. Teachers, who serve as Board of Electoral Inspectors (BEIs), anticipate more perilous conditions amid the raging pandemic and worsening socio-economic crises. Let‘s not scrimp on the budget to ensure our poll workers’ safety. And better pay, of course.
As teachers will be at the frontlines of possibly one of the most precarious elections in recent years, we are calling on our legislators to not be too tightfisted and allot significant amount for poll workers’ compensation and for the establishment of safety and protective measures. These are key to strengthening efforts to ensure a proper, peaceful, and safe conduct of the 2022 elections.
Our poll workers’ commitment and service to the country during this important day should not come at the cost of their own well-being, like before. Teacher-poll workers deserve to be properly compensated and their well-being taken care of, especially as it is well-known how severely overworked, underpaid, and under-supported they are in their own profession.
Since early this year on behalf of teacher-poll workers, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers has been reaching out to Comelec to ensure substantial raises to poll workers’ honoraria and allowances, as well as to press for COVID-19 health preventive measures and other support mechanisms in light of the present crises besetting the country.
In fact, DepEd and Comelec subsequently announced their shared intent to raise the pay of teacher-poll workers, but the massive cut in the latter’s funding proposal threatened the fulfillment of the said announcement. Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez himself said that the electoral boards will be the “most affected” by the budget reduction.
We don’t want a repeat of the 2019 mid-term elections, which faced considerable problems—such as insufficient pay and allowances plus taxes, uncompensated overtime of poll workers for up to 48 hours, health and safety concerns, among others.
We must ensure the welfare of election frontliners as a crucial measure to ensure the conduct of the coming national elections.
