ILOILO City – Almost “90 percent” of those who served in the recent barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in Western Visayas already received their honoraria – but minus the five percent withholding tax imposed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
These election workers were the board of election inspectors, board of canvassers and supply staff, among others, that were mostly public teachers and government workers.
According to Commission on Elections (Comelec) Region 6 acting director Atty. Tomas Valera, the chairpersons of the boards of election inspectors and canvassers were allotted P6,000 each plus P1,000 transportation allowance.
On the other hand, the members of the boards of election inspectors and canvassers were allotted P5,000 each plus P1,000 transportation allowance.
Valera clarified that only poll workers receiving salaries over P250,000 annually were taxed. Those with annual salaries below P250,000 weren’t.
BIR was criticized for insisting on the withholding tax.
“Teachers deserve to receive the full amount of the honoraria after undertaking their high-risk job as poll workers,” said Cong. Antonio Tinio of the ACT Teachers party-list. “It is only under Duterte’s administration that even poll workers’ honorarium and travel allowance are not safe from taxation.”
According to Tinio, there was no point for BIR to deprive poll workers of their full compensation as majority of them were public school teachers earning below the P250,000 threshhold that should already be exempt from income tax.
Meanwhile, Cong. France Castro, also of ACT Teachers party-list, said the travel allowance should not be taxed, too, as it was essentially not an income but a form of reimbursement for the expenses incurred by poll workers in the performance of their official duties such as bringing the election paraphernalia to precincts and taking them back to local Comelec offices.
House Committee on Appropriations chairman Davao City’s Cong. Karlo Nograles agreed with his colleagues.
“The stipend for teachers is not that big to begin with, especially when you compare it to their daunting task,” said Nograles.
He added: “Sparing the honoraria from tax will be consistent with President Rodrigo Duterte’s pro-people stance, which we saw with the doubling of the base pay of the lowest-ranked military and uniformed personnel earlier this year.”/PN
