Comelec urged to intensify training of teachers as poll inspectors

THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) urged the Commission on Election (Comelec) to intensify the training of the public school teachers who will be serving as board of election inspectors in the upcoming Barangay (village) and Sanguniang Kabataan (youth council) election on May 14.

DILG assistant secretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said the request came after several teachers in Pangasinan asked him for special training particularly on the appreciation of ballots prior to the manual voting.

He said the teachers especially the new ones need to be oriented again of the rules in appreciating and counting the ballots considering that the voting and counting for the May 14 elections will be manual as opposed to the automated elections in 2016.

“It is always a huge challenge for teachers serving as BEIs especially with all the pressure from poll watchers, supporters of the barangay and SK candidates, and even from voters. They should therefore know their duties like the back of their hands to ensure that there will be no glitches come election day,” Malaya said.

“The important thing is that they will be able to learn and go through the whole process so that they will be able to address and resolve any issue that may come up during the election proper,” he added.

The last manual election in the country was conducted during the barangay elections in November 2013.

Earlier, the Comelec said some 77 million ballots have been printed for the coming elections in which voters need to manually write down the names of their barangay and SK bets.

About 300,000 public school teachers are expected to serve as chair

person and members of electoral boards in which they will be assigned to serve across 41,933 barangays nationwide except from the 96 barangays in Marawi City which is exempted from conducting the May 14 polls following the five-month war there which ended on October 2017.

However, according to the republic act 10756 rendering of election services is no longer compulsory for public school teachers who may opt out of election duty.

“Should there be lack of volunteer teachers, the COMELEC can appoint private school teachers, national government employees excluding military officers, DepEd non-teaching personnel, other national government officials and employees with permanent position, members of COMELEC-accredited civil society organizations, or any registered voter in the city or municipality with known integrity and not connected with any candidate or political party,” said Malaya. (Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo/SunStar Philippines)