Teachers serving as BEIs to receive honorarium in cash – Comelec
Public school teachers who will serve as Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) in the May 13 midterm polls will receive their honorarium in cash.
“The honorarium will be paid in cash and no longer through cash cards,” Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez said.
Comelec Project Management Office (PMO) Deputy Project Director Teopisto Elnas said their Finance Department already released the corresponding amount for each city and municipality to their Election Officers.
“The payrolls for the electoral boards are ready,” he said.
Based on the Election Service Reform Act (ESRA), the corresponding honoraria for poll workers are: Chairperson of the Electoral Boards - 16,000; Members of Electoral Boards - 15,000; Department of Education Supervisor Official (DESO) - 14,000; and Support Staff - 12,000.
In previous elections, the adoption of cash cards resulted in many teachers belatedly getting their
honorarium due to lack of access to an ATM machine.
The Commission en Banc has delegated the authority to approve requests for the early release of election paraphernalia, forms, and supplies to the BEI.
The poll body instructed the National Capital Region (NCR) Regional Election Director (RED) as well as all Provincial Election Supervisors (PES) to approve or disapprove requests for early distribution of paraphernalia to be used on Election Day.
In Resolution No. 10527, the Comelec said there is a need to immediately act on requests for authority for the early distribution of election forms, supplies, and paraphernalia to ensure that these are distributed in time for the opening of elections on May 13.
Grounds to grant requests for early distribution include those with considerable distance between Office of the City/Municipal Treasurer and the Voting Center; difficulty in transporting between Office of the City/Municipal Treasurer and the Voting Center; high number of polling precincts in the city/municipality that will make it unlikely for all the BEIs to be given the election paraphernalia, forms, and supplies on Election Day and be in their respective polling precincts on time; and the peace and order condition in the area in relation to the safety of the BEI members and the election paraphernalia, forms, and supplies.
Election forms, paraphernalia, and
supplies are usually distributed to the BEIs early in the morning on Election Day.
Picket at BIR
Members of the militant group Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) will stage a picket today, May 6 in front of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) head office in Quezon City to protest the five percent tax imposed on the honoraria and allowances of public school teachers rendering poll duties in the May 13, 2019, mid-term elections.
ACT demands the scrapping of the five percent tax on election compensation and the automatic tax exemption of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI).
Calling their poll duty as “Buwis buhay na May buwis pa (Life threatening and yet heavily taxed),’’ ACT members stressed that soaring inflation rates have made their life miserable as they prepare huge sample ballots with their demands inscribed on them.