ILOILO City – More than 50,000 teachers and non-teaching personnel who tendered over 24 hours of service in the Oct. 30 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) will not receive overtime pay.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Region 6 director Atty. Dennis Ausan said this was made clear during the poll workers’ training held in September.
“One thing certain is nagahambal ang aton Commission nga wala ina ya madala even sa budget nga ginhatag. Wala na ma-cover ang overtime service nila kay actually they served more than eight hours ang ila bal-an so dala na ini sa honorarium nga ginpreparar,” Ausan told Panay News when asked about the overtime pay on Friday morning, Nov. 3.
The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) had appealed to the Comelec to grant teachers overtime pay for working non-stop for more than 24 hours.
“In as much as we would like to give, however, there is this joint COA-DBM (Commission on Audit – Department of Budget and Management) circular which provides that only employees of an agency [are] entitled to claim overtime. The teachers who served as electoral board members are not employees of Comelec,” Garcia told reporters on Thursday, Nov. 2, when asked about the TDC’s request.
Garcia also said that a budget was not provided for such items.
The TDC has appealed to allow overtime pay for teachers, saying that some have reached around 30 hours of work for the elections.
“Many of our Department of Education employees work beyond 24 hours and are thus entitled to overtime pay,” TDC chair Benjo Basas said.
For Ausan, the paid services of poll workers began with collecting the election paraphernalia from the Municipal Treasurer Office (MTO) until the proclamation of winners.
“Ang serbisyo bali sang maestra halin sa pagkuha sang paraphernalia sa opisina sa treasurers, paglakat nila pag-deploy sa voting centers until such time nga maka-proclaim sila. So for all those services, may bayad na sila, sirado na, regardless of the number of hours,” he added.
Admittedly, Ausan said there were some areas in the region, particularly in remote areas in the provinces of Capiz and Aklan, where poll workers served beyond 24 hours or even until Nov. 1.
“Because of the very difficult terrain, pila ka oras ang biyahe, so nagapahuway pa ni sila in between kay at that time, grabe ka munog sang ulan nga very unsafe. So naga-advise na kita sa ila, ara man naga-upod ang PNP (Philippine National Police) and AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), nagapundo sila along the way, kay siempre gina-una man nila ang ila lawas nga safe man sila,” Ausan also said.
On the other hand, many poll workers in the region have already received their honoraria.
“May nakabayad na gid man… A good number of the poll workers, as early as Oct. 31,” the Comelec official said.
Ausan expects that the bulk of the payout will be distributed on Friday, Nov. 3, until next week, considering that Nov. 1 and 2 were holidays and there were no banking transactions.
“What is important is that we comply with the law nga dapat mabayaran naton ang tanan nga poll workers within 15 days after the elections,” Ausan assured. Otherwise, he added, it is considered an election offense.
He also noted the substantial documentary requirements to be submitted by the poll workers, such as tax computation and certification of payroll.
Ausan, in particular, said highly urbanized cities may experience slower payouts because more poll workers have served.
Earlier this week, Garcia ordered all election officers in the country to expedite the payout of honoraria to poll workers.
The budget is allocated by the Comelec-Central Office and downloaded to the regional offices until it reaches the city or municipality election officers.
In the region, more or less 50,000 electoral boards (EBs) have served 5,622 clustered precincts.
Each clustered polling precincts have three EB members: a chairperson, a poll clerk and a third member.
Under Comelec Resolution No. 10727, the chairperson and members of the EB, the Department of Education Supervising Official (DESO) and their respective support staff and medical personnel shall be entitled to the following honoraria:
* chairperson of the EB – P7,000
* members of the EB – P6,000
* DESO – P5,000
* support staff – P3,000
* medical personnel – P3,000
The EB chair, members, DESO, and support staff already received 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 received P1,000 travel allowance on election day./PN
