DepEd hails teachers for peaceful, smooth midterm polls
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) on Tuesday recognized the contributions of public school teachers to the largely peaceful and smooth conduct of the 2025 midterm elections.
In a statement, the education department said over 660,000 DepEd personnel were among the 758,549 tapped for election duty nationwide.
“Thank you to all the teachers, poll workers, and school staff who helped and monitored the election. From start to finish, you were there—you didn’t let up,” Education Secretary Sonny Angara said in Filipino.
“We salute you. Because of you, the process was smooth and safe,” he added.
Meanwhile, DepEd said it recorded 603 election-related incidents through its Election Task Force (ETF), which operated a 24/7 command center in Makati City from May 11 to 13.
READ: DepEd activates Election Command Center in Makati
DepEd, however, said most of the concerns were “resolved at the regional and division ETF counterparts,” with some directly endorsed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for appropriate action.
Most reports came from Region IX, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), and Metro Manila.
Common issues involved vote counting machine malfunctions, irregularities in ballots and receipts, and voter list concerns.
Peaceful elections
Despite the incidents, DepEd assessed that the elections remained “largely peaceful.”
“In line with the assessment of the Comelec and other agencies, we can say that overall, the elections were conducted smoothly,” ETF Chairperson Undersecretary Malcolm Garma said in the same statement.
DepEd underscored the critical role of teachers in upholding the democratic process, with Angara tagging teachers as “frontliners of democracy.”
