MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will tap into its savings to increase the honoraria of teachers who will man the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls scheduled on October 30, 2023, the poll body announced on Thursday, March 23.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the honoraria of poll workers will be raised to P10,000, P8,000, and P6,000, for the electoral board chair, EB member, and Department of Education supervisor official (DESO), respectively.

In past elections, poll workers’ salaries for the three posts were P6,000, P5,000, and P4,000, respectively, in accordance with the Election Service Reform Act.

“We had huge savings from our P8.4-billion budget [for the barangay polls]. In the procurement, we picked the least costly offer for every supply, like indelible ink for example,” Garcia said.

Manning precincts for the barangay polls, which are manual, tends to be more tedious than serving in automated elections, because the counting and canvassing of votes are longer.

Back in January, Garcia said a pay bump for teachers was unlikely, since the readjusted budget given by Congress to the Comelec for the mounting of the barangay polls did not take into account the proposed increase in poll workers’ honoraria.

The next round of barangay elections has long been delayed: It was supposed to be conducted in May 2020, but was postponed to December 2022, and then moved again to October 2023. – Rappler.com