Teachers who served as poll workers during the midterm elections have been given their honoraria, in cash this time unlike in previous polls, said an official.

Desiderio Deligero, chief of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) School Governance and Operations Division in Bohol, said that teachers started to receive their honorarium starting Thursday last week, three days after the elections.

According to Atty. Rafael Montoya, acting election officer of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Tagbilaran City, they started to distribute the honoraria in batches starting last week and continued until today.

Montoya said over P2 million was allocated for Electoral Board chairpersons and members in the city alone.

The cash payment was better than the cash cards used during the 2016 presidential elections, he added.

“Cash na. Kay sauna cash card ‘nya nig-agto sa banko usahay way sud,” said Montoya.

The use of cash cards before also reportedly resulted in many teachers belatedly getting their honorarium due to lack of access to an ATM machine.

Montoya said that the corresponding honoraria for poll workers were: chairperson of the Electoral Boards – P6,000; members of Electoral Boards – P5,000; Department of Education Supervisor Official (DESO) – P4,000; and support staff – P2,000.

All of the poll workers were also given P1,000 each as transport allowance.

Earlier, the Comelec announced that the honoraria will be exempt from tax.

However, tax exemption will only be granted to teachers if they file a prescribed sworn declaration of having an annual income threshold of P250,000 before the Comelec.

As stipulated in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Ruling 759 series of 2018, employees do not need to pay income tax on their honoraria if their annual income is under P250,000. (RT)