PASIG CITY, May 17, 2019 – The Department of Education (DepEd) expressed its heartfelt gratitude to all the teachers and personnel who served in the 2019 national and local elections.
“We, at DepEd, thank them for continuing to be on the frontline of the foremost exercise of democracy in the country notwithstanding the demands and challenges the season entails,” Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones shared.
A total of 526,686 teachers and DepEd personnel was deputized by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to play a crucial part in the polls, 257,304 of which are teachers who served as members of the Electoral Board.
As for the general assessment of this year’s election, Undersecretary for Administration and Election Task Force (ETF) Chairman Alain Del Pascua described the election as secure and peaceful.
“We can generally say that it’s an orderly and peaceful election,” Pascua stated. “Except for several occurrences that everybody knows, then I think the election that we have seen is the normal election that we have been seeing for so many years,” he added.
The ETF at DepEd Central Office, which ended operations on May 14, received a total of 131,526 reports ranging from cases of unpaid honoraria, unpaid allowances, injuries and harassments, damages to school facilities, notes on VCM malfunction, transmission issues, marking pen issues, final testing and sealing issues, as well as other complaints.
The bulk of information received by the ETF monitoring and operations center came from the use of the DepEd election monitoring application. The app served and scaled multiple information monitoring uses. It also has an election menu (pre-election activities, election proper, and post-election activities, and other related incidents/matters). These information are automatically consolidated in the DepEd Central Server for monitoring, analysis, and immediate response in real time.
The ETF also used others means of receiving information including emails, fax, SMS, and calls.
Pascua also thanked the members of the ETF nationwide for their commitment and sacrifice in ensuring the safety of teachers and other personnel during the elections.
“Sa mga guro at mga empleyado ng DepEd, nagpapasalamat po kami at saludo kami sa kanilang lahat, sa kanilang sakripisyo at sa kanilang pagsisilbi sa halalang ito,” Pascua ended.
END