• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has sought the assistance of Kabankalan and Himamaylan city governments in Negros Occidental for the payment of the 881 support staff, who rendered duties during the October 2023 synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataaan elections (BSKE).
The Comelec-Negros Island Region (NIR) has issued a legal opinion, which can be used by concerned the local government units as “ basis”, to pay the Comelec support, Comelec-NIR Regional Director Lionel Marco Castillano said.
The support staff were supposed to be paid P5,500 each, but their hiring was not authorized by the Comelec central office.
They include 661 who rendered poll duties in Kabankalan and 221 others in Himamaylan.
The hiring of support staff by the concerned election officers in the two cities was reported as an “honest mistake”.
In a press briefing, Castillano said that they were ordered by the Comelec central office to help facilitate the payment for the support staff, noting that there was no budget for it.
“We hope the LGUs could help us with the payment because they actually served during the BSKE elections,” he added.
Meanwhile, Cindy Ballesteros was recently designated as the NIR regional election attorney along with Dindo Maglasang as assistant regional director, following the appointment of Castillano. | GB
