Pray for teachers with poll duties – DepEd

CEBU, Philippines - As 233,000 teachers from the Department of Education will be deployed during the upcoming local and national elections, the top education official is the public to pray for them and give them support.

DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro said that teachers would like to have a clean, honest and credible election but teachers are also beset with pressures and threats from various sides.

“Our teachers need your prayers and support. Eighty percent to 90 percent of the teachers who will serve in the election have the heart of gold, that is my assurance,” said Luistro, who was one of the speakers yesterday during the Summit on Credible Cebu Elections 2013.

Luistro said that just like anyone else, they too have a quest for credible elections.

Of the 233,000 teachers who will be deployed in the May 13, 2013 election, around 14,000 of them will be in Region VII.  The country has over 77,800 clustered polling precincts nationwide, of which 5,741 are in the region.

Region VII, according to Commission on Elections Cebu provincial supervisor Eddie Aba, has a total of 4,114,046 registered voters. Cebu has 2,509,520; Bohol has 775,785; Negros Oriental has 763,937 and Siquijor has 64,804.

Region VII is the fourth region in the country with a huge number of registered voters.

Aba assured during his talk at the summit that the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine is “very difficult to hack.”

“The PCOS has several locks, more than a zillion locks. Ug ma-hack man gani na ang PCOS siguro kung magsugod ang hacker on 2013 mahuman siya og unlock mga 2020,” said Aba in jest.

Luistro added that if he was to decide, he will not let the teachers join the election so that they will not have to face harassment during election time and be battered by a lot of legal cases after the election especially by losing candidates.

“But we cannot do that, teachers are mandated under the law to serve during elections. This elections, one half of our teaching force will be involved. Give them courage as they do their duties,” Luistro said.

Luistro said that DepEd has formed “DepEd Election Task Force” nationwide that will help every region to collect all election-related problems.

Among the preparations of DepEd, Luistro said starting next month and May, the teachers will undergo workshops in preparation for the elections.

Also by April 11, regional administrators and legal officers of DepEd will undergo regional trainings.   (FREEMAN)