• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Commission on Elections Thursday committed that it will pay the honoraria for the 660 support staff in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, who served in the Oct. 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).
“The Comelec reassures the public that the 660 BSKE 2023 support staff will be given their due payment,” the poll body said in a statement Nov. 16, adding that “investigation is underway to determine the administrative and/or criminal liability of the Comelec field officers involved in this incident”.
It said that as per Kabankalan City Mayor Benjie Miranda, the 660 support staff have not yet received their honoraria due to an honest mistake made by the Office of the City Election Officer-Kabankalan in the process of hiring their services.
Miranda also said the city government has no obligation to pay the support staff and that it has no allotted budget for the payment of honoraria, amounting to P3,700,000, Comelec spokesperson, Atty. John Rex Laudiangco, said in the statement.
“Due to this unprecedented incident, the Comelec has taken the proactive step of paying the honoraria of all 660 BSKE 2023 support staff in Kabankalan. Each is entitled to receive P5,500 as honorarium for the election services they rendered,” he added.
Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia had said the honoraria for teachers and others who served during the synchronized BSKE Oct. 30 should be paid 15 days after the election.
Meanwhile, Laudiangco said the poll body has disqualified 10 more BSKE 2023 candidates on Nov. 15 for premature campaigning and vote-buying, most of them based in Tanjay, Rizal.
This brings to 39 the total number of disqualified BSKE candidates, as of Nov. 16, and Garcia stressed the remaining pending disqualification cases will be resolved soon. | CGC
