A woman registers for the 2022 national elections at an almost empty Comelec office in Aroceros, Manila on June 2, 2021 as voter registration remains low even after resuming operations last month. According to Manila District-1 Election Officer Marijune Uriarte, there are only about 100 voter registrants per day as the Comelec appealed to the public to register for the coming elections. Mores Heramis, ABS-CBN News
MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) said Thursday the Commission on Elections (Comelec) approved its request to raise the honoraria of teaching and non-teaching personnel who would serve as poll workers in next year's elections.
The DepEd, in a statement, said the Comelec "fully supported" the department's request to increase poll workers' pay by P3,000.
With this, chairpersons of electoral boards will be paid P9,000 from P6,000, while board members will get P8,000 from P5,000, as proposed by DepEd.
The honoraria for Department of Education Supervisor Official (DESO) and the support staff will also be raised to P7,000 and P5,000, respectively.
"We want to express our gratitude to the Comelec for approving our request for higher compensation for our teachers that will render their services in the next year’s election," Education Secretary Leonor Briones said.
"Given the current health situation, it is rightful for them to receive additional allowance," she said.
The DepEd said the Comelec will also include poll workers' transportation allowance, food and water allowance, and clean-up and repair or maintenance expenses in its proposed budget for the elections.
The poll body will include as well the honoraria of the proposed Comelec-DepEd Monitoring and Coordination Teams in its budget, according to the DepEd.
Other benefits such as on-site swab testing, shifting, and tax exemption will still be studied by the Comelec and DepEd.
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Department of Education, Commission on Elections, poll workers, teachers, public school teachers, poll workers honoraria, election officials, 2022 elections, elections