DepEd warns teachers on May polls electioneering; services not compulsory

By Georaloy I. Palao-ay

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Top Dept. of Education officials warned teachers and personnel to veer away from electioneering and partisan politics this coming May elections or face sanctions.

The Department recently released DepEd Order No. 48, series 2018 which identifies activities regarded as partisan political activities in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the Civil Service Commission and Commission on Elections.

Any DepEd official or personnel who commits prohibited acts shall be dealt with in accordance with the Omnibus Election Code,  Revised Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service, and DepEd Order No. 49, series 2006 or the Revised Rules of Procedure of DepEd in Administrative Cases.

This, even as they said election duties of public school teachers are no longer compulsory but honoraria, allowances, and benefits of those who will render election duties will be given.

This is stipulated in Republic Act 10756 or the Election Service Reform Act of 2014 (ESRA).

Top Dept. of Education officials bared these in a consultation with public schools district supervisors and Alternative Learning System (ALS) implementers from across the region.

Citing crucial role of the DepEd in the coming national and local elections Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del B. Pascua and Assistant Secretary for Procurement, Project Management, and Field Operations lawyer Revsee A. Escobedo briefed participants on creation of DepEd election task forces in the central office level down to the district level and on the salient features of RA 10756 or ESRA.

Benefits of teaches who will render election service include five days of service credit, travel allowance of P1,000, P50,000 legal indemnification for legal assistance and other forms of legal protection, medical assistance in such amount as may be “sufficient to cover for medical and hospitalization expenses until recovery of injuries sustained while in the performance of election duties,” and P500,000 death benefit.     “This is the first time we are conducting an activity like this in preparation for orderly elections and we are in fact piloting it here in the Cordillera region,” said Pascua.

 The consultation which will be done nationwide or in all other regions according to the undersecretary will also be an avenue for those in the ground to air out their issues and concerns as well as the gathering of teacher or DepEd related reports experienced during the past elections as a means to address the same this coming elections.

“We would like to get everything of these usual DepEd related reports or incidents and put them into a mobile application as a checklist of sorts to make incident reporting very easy, accessible, and real time,” Pascua said.

He added that a national operations and monitoring center manned by the national office will receive and monitor such reports before, during, and after the elections.

According to Pascua, the training of teachers especially in the use of the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) will happen these coming months.  

The DepEd, Commission on Elections and Dept. of Science and Technology recently signed a memorandum of agreement relative to the training of teachers who will serve in the midterm elections on May 13.

Escobedo explained movement of DepEd employees who won’t be affected by the 45-day ban set by Comelec.