by magnolia_eic | Mar 12, 2010 | Election 2010, National News
TEACHERS serving as Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) in the May 10 elections will receive P1,300 on top of the P3,000 honorarium, according to a resolution promulgated by the Commission on Elections on March 4.
As per Comelec Resolution No. 8786, each BEI member will receive an additional P1,300, which includes P500 for the inspection, verification and sealing of the book of voters; P500 for the testing and sealing of machines; and P300 for one-time transportation allowance.
Teachers who serve as BEI are entitled to receive P1,000 honorarium for three days of poll duty: the day before the elections, election day, and the day after.
The BEI is composed of a chairman, a vice-chairman, and a poll clerk, all public school teachers. The Comelec will deploy 240,000 teachers to man 74,000 clustered polling precints nationwide.
Each of the school heads, principals, and supervisors who are not part of the BEI but will help supervise the conduct of elections at the precincts will also get P3,000 honorarium, while janitors and messengers who will be assigned in schools serving as polling precincts will receive P1,500. The board of canvassers in the municipal, city, and provincial levels will get P5,000.
Education Secretary Jesli Lapuz and Comelec chair Jose Melo signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to ensure the fair compensation of public school teachers as they perform their electoral duties on May 10.
After sealing an agreement, DepEd undersecretary Franklin Sunga and Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal settled on a teacher compensation package, which included the P1,300 additional pay for BEI members. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Mar 6, 2010 | Election 2010, Headlines, National News
THE board of election inspectors (BEIs) who will serve on election day will be given copies of the list of the alleged double and multiple registrants for the 2010 polls.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesperson James Jimenez said that there will be a watchlist so that the BEIs will be alert and they can check if a voter has already voted in other places.
Once the watchlist is out, Comelec will be issuing guidelines on the use of the watchlist.
Under the law, the latest registration of the double and multiple registrants will be honored by the poll body.
Jimenez also assured that the commission is not negligent towards the issue and the cleansing of voters that was earlier cited by the Philippine Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).
Poll watchdog PPCRV earlier said there are about 40,000 duplicate voters in Davao City. Almost 1,000 are meanwhile alleged to be zombie voters.
The Comelec official admitted though that dead citizens who are still part of the voters list are quite difficult to track.
Comelec will soon be launching a page on its home website where people can report to the commission there dead relatives. The webpage will be helping to further cleanse the list of voters. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Mar 6, 2010 | Election 2010, Headlines, National News
FOR the first time in the country’s election history, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will put up special polling precincts in detention cells to uphold the rights of the inmates to vote on May 10.
Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the special polling precincts in the detention facilities will be manned by Special Board of Election Inspectors.
The Comelec, in Resolution 09-005, upheld the right to vote of detainees and prisoners in national prisons, provincial, city and municipal jails and other government detention facilities on May 10.
The resolution granted the petition of the Commission on Human Rights to establish special polling places complete with Special Board of Election Inspectors in municipal, district, city and provincial jails with at least 100 registered inmates.
Sarmiento said that if a jail has less than a hundred inmates who have registered, they will have to apply for escorted voting to enable them to vote in polling centers found in public schools.
According to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, of 50,000 inmates awaiting trial across the country, only 23,657 have registered for the May 10 polls. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Mar 5, 2010 | Headlines, National News
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said on Wednesday that it has exceeded its tax collection goal from operation last month by P3 billion.
BIR Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres said the country’s main tax collection agency generated P44.9 billion tax revenue from operation in February, higher by 8.3 percent compared to P41.43 billion goal for the month.
Tan-Torres told reporters on the sidelines of Philippine Economic Briefing that they are still expecting P2 billion to P3 billion in the coming days, so likely they will be exceeding their overall target by P3 billion in February.
Tan-Torres also said tax collection from the sale of Treasury bills, meanwhile, is still short by P1 billion against the target of P4 billion.
Overall, he said the BIR, which accounts for more than 75 percent of the national government’s revenue, is still short of target for February by P1.04 billion to P47.21 billion against the P48.252 billion target.
This has been the third straight month the BIR has exceeded its programmed collection since December last year. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Mar 5, 2010 | Headlines, National News
THE National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) will be convened soon to dialogue with manufacturers, producers and retailers to ensure supply and price stability of basic commodities as the El Niño phenomenon is expected to affect supply and prices of agricultural products.
Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila, who is co-chairman of the NPCC, told a press conference that he is calling for a dialogue with all the stakeholders to determine what causes price increases although he said that so far only prices of chicken have moved up.
He, however, admitted that the El Niño would impact on the supply and prices of agriculture products particularly rice and corn but not immediately on processed products.
He said that together with the Department of Agriculture, the DTI will strengthen its price monitoring activities and the government is ready to make the necessary interventions.
Based on the estimates by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the El Niño’s impact would account for a .4 percent of the country’s GDP, which is expected to hit between 2.6 percent to 3.6 percent.
Inflation though is expected to remain benign at 3.5 to 5.5 percent this year. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Mar 3, 2010 | Headlines, National News
The Supreme Court has affirmed with finality its decision upholding the constitutionality of the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement.
In a two-page resolution, the Court en banc, held that the petitioners led by the Bayang Alyansang Makabayan, former senator Jovito Salonga and lawyer Evalyn Ursua, formerly the counsel of Subic rape victim “Nicole,” failed to raise new arguments that would warrant the Court’s reversal of its ruling issued on February 11, 2009.
In its February 2009 decision penned by now retired Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna, the Court upheld the constitutionality of the VFA as it was “duly concurred in by the Philippine Senate and has been recognized as a treaty by the United States.”
It pointed out that Section 25, Article XVIII, 1987 Constitution provides that “foreign military bases, troops, or facilities shall not be allowed in the Philippines except under a treaty duly concurred in by the Senate and, when the Congress so requires, ratified by a majority of the votes cast by the people in a national referendum held for that purpose, and recognized as a treaty by the other contracting State.”
Thus, the Court ruled that the presence of US soldiers in the country is allowed under the VFA.
“The VFA, which is the instrument agreed upon to provide for the joint RP-US military exercises, is simply an implementing agreement to the main RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty,” the SC said. (PIA-Bohol)
