By Junex Doronio
CITING THE SACRIFICES RENDERED BY TEACHERS during the October 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE), the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Tuesday reiterated its call to remove the tax from the honoraria that poll workers will be receiving for their service.
At the same time, the ACT said the teachers should be fairly compensated by granting them overtime pay.
“Isipin niyo ang mga teachers natin ay madaling araw pa mula kahapon nasa mga presinto at hanggang ngayon, hindi pa natutulog. Hindi robot at makina ang mga teachers at poll workers natin kaya kailangan ng karagdagang benepisyo. Overtime pay ang hinnihingi natin,” ACT National Capital Region (NCR) president Ruby Bernardo said at a press conference.
On Monday, October 30, Department of Education (DepEd) Undersecretary Michael Poa said they have already touched base with Comelec to ensure that the Board of Election Inspectors will get their poll duty honoraria.
However, the ACT strongly opposed the 20% tax deduction that will be applied to the said amounts.
For his part, ACT chairperson Vladimer Quetua said that teachers who rendered service for the recently concluded BSKE should be given a P10,000 net honoraria.
“Hindi na kasi sasapat ‘yung nare-receive ng mga teachers o mga poll workers in general sa kanyang kompensasyon. Alam naman natin na kahit may extra na pagboboluntaryo na nagbabantay, pero makikita niyo na talagang teacher pa rin ang nagbabantay,” he said.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has announced that the chairman and electoral board members for BSKE 2023 will receive P10,000 and P9,000 of honoraria, respectively.
Noticeably, this was an increase from the previous P6,000 and P5,000 granted to them.
But it’s the tax that really burden the teachers.
“‘Wag niyo nang buwisan ang mga teachers dito. Ang panawagan, dagdagan niyo pa nga itong honoraria ng teachers. Dapat minimum. Sa aming pagtatantya, dapat nga doblehin niyo,” Quetua stressed.
(ai/mnm)