Teachers’ demands for Comelec before 2010 elections

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) over the weekend released a list of demands it said the government and the Commission on Election (Comelec) should fulfill before teachers do poll duties in the 2010 national elections. “We are appealing to the national government and the Comelec to hear our demand first before ordering us to do election duties,” TDC National President Benjo Basas said in a text message.

The demands include: Early training for teachers on the use of the precinct count optical scan machines or PCOS, a P2, 000 per diem allowance for the Board of Elections Inspectors (BEI) members of which 50 percent shall be paid before the election day itself, optional duty for teachers in Sulu and other conflict areas, legal protection through the designation of one lawyer per 20 clustered precincts, 24-hour’s police and military visibility, medical team per school and insurance for BEI members.

Public school teachers are required by law to sit as members of the BEI. The manual system of elections has, for decades, required them to stay at the precincts until the wee hours of the morning following the elections, and to return to poll duties for the next two or three days, to finish tallying the votes.

Safety measures, he said should also be instituted to ensure that teachers are not harassed by losing poll candidates and their supporters.

In the 1998 elections, 23 teachers of the Tatalon National High School in Quezon City were sued by a losing candidate. The teachers were subsequently arrested and handcuffed right in front of their students.

Musa Dimasidsing and Nellie Banaag were also killed while serving in the May 2007 elections.

The TDC earlier called on lawmakers to amend the election law so that the teachers will be given the option of not doing election duties. –James Konstantin Galvez, Manila Times