PUBLIC school teachers who will serve in the October 2025 Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) are set to receive as much as P12,000 in honoraria, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
“The Chairperson and Members of the EB, including Special Electoral Board (SEB), their respective Support Staff and other Support Staff, shall be entitled to compensation depending on their roles, which is inclusive of honoraria, travel, communication, and meal allowances,” said the Comelec in its Resolution No. 11160.
It said the EB chairpersons shall be entitled to P12,000; EB members to P11,000; and EB support staff to P8,000.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the amount to be given to those serving in the EBs is similar to the amount provided during the May 2025 national and local elections (NLE).
“During the BPE, whatever honoraria the teachers got in the NLE, that’s what we will also give them,” said Garcia in an interview.
The Electoral Board (EB) refers to the body duly constituted by the Commission to conduct the Final Testing and Sealing (FTS), voting, counting, and transmission of election results.
The Comelec said around 9,000 public school teachers are set to serve as EB members during the BPE.
In addition, some 1,000 Philippine Coast Guard personnel will be placed on standby to serve as back-up EB members.
AFP DEPLOYMENT
The Armed Forces will deploy a sufficient number of troops to ensure peace and order during the first Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao parliamentary elections on October 23.
In an interview with radio DzRH, AFP spokesman Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. has issued “clear directives” to troops on the conduct of the polls.
Brawner’s order, Padilla said, is “to ensure peaceful, orderly and credible elections in the BARMM region.”
“So we are deploying adequate forces to provide security support to the Commission on Elections,” said Padilla, without giving a specific number of personnel to be deployed.
“We are also coordinating with the Philippine National Police, which has the primary responsibility for election security,” added Padilla.
Padilla said the military will play a support role in the security of the elections.
“Our role is to ensure there will be no armed groups or threat actors that will disrupt this democratic process, the elections that are about to happen,” said Padilla.
Padilla said the military continues to conduct “threat assessment” to determine possible security requirements in the future.
“What we can assure is that we have sufficient personnel and resources for this. We are going to augment the PNP, and of course, we will be under the Comelec,” said Padilla.
Padilla sought to downplay the recent order of Moro Islamic Liberation Front chairman Murad Ibrahim to MILF commanders not to take part in the government’s decommissioning process.
Murad accused the government of reneging on its commitment to provide MILF combatants, who earlier availed of the process under the 2014 peace agreement, with the needed support.
“While we respect the MILF internal processes, we hope this temporary suspension will not affect the overall peace process and the upcoming elections in general,” said Padilla.
“The appeal of the Armed Forces is for all parties to remain committed to the peace agreement and help each other to ensure the BARMM will be peaceful,” said Padilla.
She said the government and the MILF have gone a long way in the peace process, adding both sides should not allow the “gains we achieved through the years” to be derailed. – With Victor Reyes
