Comelec to train teachers for Oct. 30 Barangay and SK elections

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Bacolod will train more than 2,700 public school teachers who will serve as poll personnel during the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) on Oct. 30.

The series of trainings has been scheduled to start on Sept. 8 and run until Oct. 21, only during Fridays and Saturdays.

Bacolod Election Officer Kathrina Trinio-Caña said three teachers, comprising the electoral board (EB), will be assigned to each of 908 clustered precincts in the city.

“We target minimum disruption of classes (during training) since the teachers will already be back in school by then,” she added.

Each EB is composed of a chairperson, a poll clerk, and a third member.

In voting centers where the EBs have yet to be filled, teachers from other schools will be tapped to serve during the BSKE.

“Next will be teachers from private schools. If none of them are available, we will go to government employees,” the election officer said.

Trinio-Caña said the teachers, who will comprise the EBs, will be trained mainly on the preliminaries of voting, contingency plans, and appreciation of ballots under the manual voting system.

The BSKE will be manually done in over 42,000 villages nationwide, except for the three pilot sites for automated elections in Dasmariñas City and Quezon City District 6.

In March this year, the Comelec approved higher honoraria for poll workers comprising the EBs in the upcoming BSKE.

They will receive P8,000, P9,000 and P10,000, from the previous P4,000, P5,000 and P6,000.* (Nanette Guadalquiver)