MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has noted that some public school teachers do not want to serve as Board of Election Tellers (BETs) in the upcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.
“There are those who begged off from serving on Election Day. These are anecdotal stories from teachers and from the Department of Education,” Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez said in an interview Tuesday.
He attributed the teachers’ refusal to serve in the May 14 polls to the manual conduct of the elections.
“There are also those who know the automated election procedures only, which is very different,” Jimenez said.
In 2014, former president Benigno Aquino III signed Republic Act No. 10756, which made election service non-compulsory for public school teachers.
During village and youth elections, each BET consists of a chairperson and two members.
“But we do not have any shortage of teachers,” Jimenez added.
For next month’s elections, the Comelec needs some 531,000 teachers to man the 177,000 polling precincts. (PNA)
