Teachers rally at Comelec over honoraria tax, other poll concerns

Members of the largest organization of education workers staged a protest in front of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday to raise before poll officials concerns including the imposition of a 20-percent tax on the honorarium for teachers serving election duties in Eleksyon 2022.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT)-Philippines said they went to the Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros, Manila as they recalled an earlier request for the poll body to meet them for a dialogue on April 6 to discuss the demands of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs).

"In 33 days, over 300,000 teachers will be sent to polling precincts to ensure the proper conduct of the 2022 national and local elections. Many of their concerns remain unaddressed, which is akin to sending our teachers to the battlefield without armaments,” ACT Secretary-General Raymond Basilio said in a press statement. “Our BEIs deserve better, and we're here to demand it from Comelec.”

ACT-Philippines earlier said teachers serving as BEIs should receive their honoraria and allowances in full amount. It is also pushing for the scrapping of the tax imposed on election service pay, which was recently hiked from five percent to 20 percent.

The group also sought Comelec’s plan on overtime pay for teachers who would need to render service election service hours, the medical measures to prevent infection as well as the treatment for those who may be infected with COVID-19, and the legal support at the precinct level.

"There's still so much that we need to discuss and resolve, and we only have so little time left to do so, they need to start acting with urgency. We've been raising these concerns to the Commission since May 2021,” said Basilio.

“While they have at certain points publicly expressed support to some of our calls, they need to go beyond that and actually engage in the democratic process of consultation and collaboration with us—the largest organization of education workers in the country and duly registered and accredited representative of public school teachers in 16 out of 17 regions," he said.

On Monday, the poll body pledged to help teachers in their demand for overtime pay during election day and the abolition of the tax on their honorarium.

Comelec Commissioner George Garcia, meanwhile, said the poll body will look into the appeal of teachers and endorse it to concerned agencies like the Bureau of Internal Revenue. — BM, GMA News