Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 23) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday said it will soon ask Congress for an additional ₱3 billion to increase teachers’ honoraria for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) this October.
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“Hopefully we’ll be able to ask Congress by the second week of February to the third week of February because we have to understand that Congress will be adjourning by March so kinakailangan po naming mai-push kaagad yun pong ating (we need to immediately push our) proposed supplemental budget,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia told CNN Philippines’ The Source.
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Earlier, Garcia told reporters that there will be no increase in the teachers’ honoraria in the BSKE after the poll body’s proposed ₱10 billion supplemented budget did not push through.
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Congress only allocated an additional ₱2.7 billion for the BSKE. Sen. Imee Marcos earlier said the requested additional ₱10 billion was an “outrageous demand.”
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Garcia said the teachers’ honoraria for the BSKE polls only ranges from ₱4,000 to ₱6,000, compared to the ₱8,000 to ₱10,000 distributed during automated elections.
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If the additional ₱3 billion will be granted, the honoraria can be increased by ₱2,000 each, he noted.
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This is very much needed since the village-level polls are manually conducted, Garcia said.
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“We have to understand the electoral board members for this Barangay and SK elections, because we are going to conduct the elections manually, they will serve for a longer period of time,” he said. ”If Congress will be kind enough to give us this discretion, kahit po tig-₱2,000 additional for our electoral board members I think maganda-ganda na yun (₱2,000 additional for each of our electoral board members I think that will be nice).”
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After being postponed a number of times, Comelec is confident that the BSKE will be finally held this October 30.
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