Lawyer Marinel Oro, DepEd-Mandaue spokesperson, says that only fewer teachers have been listed to serve in the elections at this time and they will need 2,000 more. | Mary Rose Sagarino
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — The Department of Education in Mandaue City (Deped Mandaue) still needs at least 2,000 more teachers to serve as electoral board members in the upcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE).
Lawyer Marinel Oro, DepEd Mandaue spokesperson, said that they continued to accept teachers who would want to serve in the polls especially since the list would be passed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on September 9 yet.
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Oro said this after only fewer teachers were listed to serve as electoral board members for the BSKE, which would be held on October 30.
She said that currently only over 1,000 teachers were listed compared to the 2,063 teachers last election.
The Comelec-Mandaue needs almost 3,000 electoral board members for the BSK election.
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She said that they would need more people this year compared to last election because the cluster precincts that would used would be 660.
This means that the number of voters of each precinct is smaller than the number during the national election. This is done especially since the barangay election is manual and that the voting population in Mandaue has increased.
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Oro also cited the reasons for the fewer number of teachers being listed to serve as electoral board members.
She said that the reason for the lower number would be because the family and friends of some of the teachers would run in the elections.
Some might have also felt exhausted since they also participated in the national election, she said.
Oro said that teachers, who were related until the fourth consaguinity to those who would run for the upcoming polls would not be allowed to serve.
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However, Oro said that they had already informed private school teachers if they also would also want to serve.
“Pwede nato sila ma-tap, but ang general first gyud nato nga ginakuha ang public school teachers. Pwede gyud na sila i-tap,” Oro said.
(We can tap them, but in general we are first getting the public school teachers. (but) We can really tap them.)
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“Naa naman tay law karun nga dili gyud mandatory sa atoang public school teachers nga moserve. Mao na kung dili sila moserve pwede ra gyud ta mo go beyond sa ilaha,” he said.
(We now have a law that it is not mandatory for our public school teacher to serve. That is why if they don’t want to serve, then we can go beyond them.)
The Comelec-Mandaue can also tap government employees to help or hire the general public, she said.