490,000 Teachers Needed for October 25 Polls

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it needs around 490,000 teachers to man the 163,552 clustered precincts in the country for the October 25 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls.

To avert possible shortage, the Comelec has lifted the ban on teachers who were deactivated during the May polls and allowed them to serve as Board of Election Tellers (BET) in the barangay and SK polls.

In the May polls, the Comelec only allowed teachers who have active registration status in the municipality to serve as members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI).

This time, however, Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said the poll en banc had to make an exemption, allowing teachers who have deactivated registration to serve as BETs to avert a shortage of inspectors for the October 25 polls.

He said the poll body is anticipating that some teachers who served in the May 10 elections would not be able to serve as BETs, considering the nature of barangay and youth polls.

Village and youth polls are considered to be more personal than other elections, with the candidates and teachers more likely to be related with each other.

For the elections to be fair and honest, the Comelec does not allow teachers to join BETs in areas where they have relatives or kin running in the elections.

“We foresee that we will have problems with this one. What we agreed, there might be a shortage, which is why we also came out with a resolution authorizing teachers, who have been deactivated, to serve as BETs,” said Jimenez.

Based on Comelec Resolution 9030 or the General Instructions for the Synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, a BET member cannot be assigned to precincts where he or she is related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity to any candidate.

The BET would be in charge of the conduct, the voting, and counting of votes, as well as maintain order within the polling place.

Each BET member shall be entitled to an honoraria of P1,000 per day for a maximum of two days of service, with those also handling SK precincts receiving additional honoraria of P500 each.