THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) said that it will need a bigger budget for the training teachers who will be assisting in the midterm elections next year.
During a hearing on Tuesday of the Joint Congressional Committee on Automated Elections regarding the status of the Comelec’s preparations for the national and local elections (NLE) in May, Comelec Chairman Sheriff M. Abas said they will try their best to stretch the allocation given to them by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for training members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs).
“Dinidiskarte namin ang training kasi ang hiningi namin sa DBM ay P5 billion pero ang binigay nasa P1.7 billion lang (We’re strategizing the training because we asked the DBM for P5 billion, but we were given only P1.7 billion),” Mr. Abas said.
“We still need P3 billion (more).”
The proposed 2019 budget for the Comelec is P13 billion.
Mr. Abas said they are looking to deploy at least two BEIs per voting station and are expecting to train 255,000 people, including at least one technical support per station.
Comelec reported that there will be 85,000 precincts for the NLE.
In the meantime, Mr. Abas said they are employing various ways, such as the use of supplemental video, to educate BEIs since the training only comes every three years.
“Gumawa kami ng video at ‘yun ang magiging additional video d’un sa module para ‘yun ang ire-review ng teachers after the training (We made a video, additional to the module, that teachers can review after the training),” he said. — Gillian M. Cortez

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