P17-M released for teachers’ honoraria

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) national office has released some P17 million cash advance intended for the honoraria of teachers who served as the Board of Election Tellers (BETs) and other election preparation expenses to three district election officers in Davao City.

Pursuant to the Comelec Minute Resolution no. 130907, Comelec released a total of P17,346,000 to the district election officers of Davao City on Oct. 17.

First District election officer lawyer Aimee Ampoloquio received a total of P7,214,000, the P7,170,000 of which will be allocated for the honoraria of 3,585 BETs who manned the 1,195 polling precincts in the first district. The P24,000 will be given to those who served as Special BETs for the detainee voters while P20,000 was used for the mobilization expenses.

A sum of P5,366,000 was also released to the second district election officer laywer Danilo Cullo. Of Cullo’s budget, P5,346,000 will be given to the 2,673 teachers who served as BETs in the 891 polling precincts while P20,000 was utilized for the mobilization expense.

Third District election officer lawyer Monalisa Mamukid, for her part, got a total of P4,790,000. The P4,770,000 will be given to the 2,385 BETs who were deployed in 795 polling precincts while the mobilization expenses cost P20,000.

While the national office has released the budget, the three election officers have yet to receive the payroll from the Department of Education (DepEd)-Davao City before they could release the honoraria to the BETs.

Ampoloquio, in a recent interview with Sun.Star Davao, said: “Ang Deped ra ang nakahibalo kung kinsa ang pantagaan namo ug honoraria kay sila man ang nag-identify sa mga BETs. Kung naa na ang payroll sugdan na namo ang awarding, (Only Deped knows who will we be giving the honoraria to since they identified the BETs. If the payroll is already there, we could start with the awarding.)”

On the same note, Comelec Commissioner Grace Padaca bared that they could only release P2,000 contrary to the initial P2,500 honoraria they earlier set. With the P500 deficit, Comelec has released resolution no. 9739 which mandates every barangay to contribute at least P10,000 or 10 percent of their Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) funds.

Comelec-Davao City noted that around 42 out of the 182 barangays have not given their contributions. Some 20 barangays in the first district failed to comply with the Comelec mandate while 14 barangays in the second district have not provided their shares.

The third district, meanwhile, has eight erring barangays out of the 82.

The erring barangays may be facing charges for violation of Section 50 (Funding) of the Omnibus Election Code.