ACT: Comelec to hike benefits for teachers serving in 2025 polls

Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines — Officials of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said on Tuesday that they were able to secure “significant commitments” from Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Garcia to increase the benefits and incentives for teachers who will serve in next year’s midterm elections.

In a statement, ACT president and former ACT Teachers party list Rep. Antonio Tinio said that during a dialogue, Garcia vowed to implement the previously announced P2,000 increase in honorarium on top of a transportation allowance of P1,000 on election day. The Comelec chief also promised to streamline the process for reimbursing the legal and medical expenses of teachers.

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“The removal of the digital signature requirement and the assignment of two additional support staff per precinct will significantly ease their election-day duties,” Tinio said.

At the same time, the ACT official said Garcia agreed to proposals to double the service credits for teachers from five to 10 days as well as extend five days of service credits to other government employees who serve in the elections.

Tinio was joined in the dialogue by ACT national chair Vladimer Quetua, ACT-National Capital Region union president Ruby Bernardo, Manila Public School Teachers Association board member Christian George Eppie and Quezon City Public School Teachers Association vice president for high school Aric Ancheta.

Tinio said ACT would wait for the Comelec en banc to issue resolutions formalizing Garcia’s commitments to their group.

Tinio added that during the dialogue, “significant breakthroughs” were also made regarding the poll body’s new guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence and social media as well as election-related “Red-tagging” concerns.

In response to issues raised by the Makabayan coalition and various sectors, Garcia promised to amend the Comelec’s controversial guidelines by removing the mandatory registration requirement of social media accounts owned by private individuals that would be used for electoral campaigning.

“The guidelines are clearly overreaching and will have a chilling effect on citizens’ constitutional right to free expression,” Tinio said.

Garcia also committed to issue specific guidelines against Red-tagging, in light of the recent Supreme Court decision in Deduro vs Vinoya, which declared that acts of Red-tagging, vilification, labeling and guilt by association threaten a person’s right to life, liberty, or security.

“We will remain vigilant in ensuring these commitments are fulfilled and properly implemented,” Tinio said.

The Comelec also clarified on Tuesday that it would not immediately delist the more-than half-a-million suspected double or multiple registered voters detected in various precincts.

Garcia, in an interview on dzBB, said the poll body would only recognize the first registration as valid and delete all subsequent registrations.

The latest data, which Garcia released stated that from July 1 to Sept. 30, the poll body’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System detected a total of 532,837 double or multiple registrants.