Opposition councilors allege politicking in selection officers
Is it appropriate to hire employees from the Cebu City Government as election canvassers and members of the board of election tellers for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections this May 14?
This was the question raised by opposition councilors from Barug Team Rama after they received information that several workers of the city government will be part of the team under the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the twin polls this coming Monday.
In a press conference, Councilor Jose Daluz III said that they already called the attention of Comelec- 7 regional directors, lawyer Veronico Petalcorin, to shed light on the matter.
“We saw that some of the election board members are workers from City Hall. And according to regional director Petalcorin, they will correct that,” said Daluz.
Daluz added that hiring election assistants from the Cebu City Government is not appropriate, stating that the local government is politicized body.
“Kung mahimo, ayaw lang ang City Hall. According to the rules, it is allowed to hire workers from local government in case there are no teachers who can serve. In that case, the election officers can serve in replacement of teachers as electoral board members,” he explained.
For his part, Petalcorin said their office is now reviewing their list of members of the electoral board.
But he added that their office has not received any letter endorsing several City Hall employees to be part of the electoral board.
“We have to respect the hierarchy on hiring members of the electoral board and the election canvassers,” said Petalcorin.
He also said that hiring workers from local government units as members of the electoral board is the last resort.
“If there’s no more public teachers, we will tap private school teachers before we can hire non-DepEd (Department of Education) personnel, and then workers from national government agencies. Hiring registered voters who do not hold any government jobs are the last resort,” explained Petalcorin.
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