The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) called for the increase of the amount of the honoraria of the election poll workers for the upcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).
According to ACT, the net honoraria is insufficient despite the increases if the government will deduct 20 percent tax.
“Election board chairpersons will just get P8,000, members will have P7,200, while support staff will only take home P6,400. These do not satisfactorily compensate the hard work and dangers faced by our election workers for several days of training and preparations, and more than 24 hours of duty on the day of the manual elections,” according to the statement of ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua.
“If only President Marcos did not veto during his first days in office the tax-free election service compensation bill, which we have painstakingly lobbied for to pass both the Lower House and Senate plenaries, our poll workers would have been enjoying substantial election service pay since last May 2022 elections. The present government only owe it to our teachers to ensure that the P8,000 to P10,000 set honoraria will be received in net,” he added.
The alliance is also requesting for the increase of transportation allowance to P3,000 due to the higher costs of transportation as they will transport election paraphernalia in the manual elections. Likewise, they are requesting for an increase to P2,500 for food allowance of each poll worker.
“Sa taas ng presyo ng mga bilihin ngayon, hindi makatarungan na babawasin pa sa maliit na honorarium ang gastos sa pagkain sa ilang araw na paggampan ng gawain para sa halalan,” Queta said.
“Our teachers thought that it was really shameless of Pres. Marcos, who was convicted for a P203 billion-worth tax evasion case, to reject the tax-exemption on election service bill. It is his chance now to undo his blunder by giving our poll workers P10,000 net honorarium and increased allowances,” he added.
