MEMBERS of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers on Wednesday staged a protest outside the Commission on Elections building in Intramuros, Manila to demand a dialogue with Comelec officials.

On March 31, 2022, the group appealed to Comelec officials to meet them today to tackle urgent issues and concerns of teachers who will serve as members of the Board of Election Inspectors in the upcoming elections.

“In 33 days, over 300,000 teachers will be sent to polling precincts to ensure the proper conduct of the 2022 national and local elections. Many of their concerns remain unaddressed, which is akin to sending our teachers to the battlefield without armaments. Our BEIs deserve better, and we’re here to demand it from Comelec,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

ACT said that the upcoming polls is more precarious because of the pandemic and the highly polarized political landscape.

The group wants members of BEIs to get their full honoraria and allowances. It also called for the removal of the tax — hiked from 5 percent to 20 percent  — on election service pay and for it to be paid in cash or through the teachers’ payroll.

The group also sought medical measures to prevent infection as well as the treatment of those who will be infected with Covid19.

“There’s still so much that we need to discuss and resolve, and we only have so little time left to do so, they need to start acting with urgency. We’ve been raising these concerns to the Commission since May 2021. While they have at certain points publicly expressed support to some of our calls, they need to go beyond that and actually engage in the democratic process of consultation and collaboration with us—the largest organization of education workers in the country and duly registered and accredited representative of public school teachers in 16 out of 17 regions,” Basilio said.