The country’s public school teachers are all set to do their respective mandated tasks during the May 14 local and national elections, the Department of Education (DepEd) said today.

DepEd Undersecretary Francis Sunga bared this at the taping of "The Cabinet Speaks" this afternoon in Malacanang, co-hosted by Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo and broadcast journalist Milky Rigonan of radio station DZRH.

Sunga said the DepEd and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) had conducted trainings from February to March this year for DepEd’s some 464,000 public school teachers, principals, supervisors and DepEd lawyers and administrative officers in connection with their role in the conduct of next week’s polls.

Sunga said the trainings included classroom preparations, counting of votes, handling and preventing problems, and other measures designed to strengthen their capabilities, particularly on their role as members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) and Board of Canvassers (BOCs).

Sunga explained that the BEI members are now entitled to a total of P3,000 per diem and P300 transportation allowance each, 50 percent of which will be given when they get the election paraphernalia and the other half when they submit the election returns to the BOC.

Another benefit for the teachers, Sunga said, is the setting up of a P5-million fund to cover medical expenses or death claims in the amount of P200,000 by the heirs of a BEI member in case of death in the performance of election duties. The fund can be replenished as needed, he added.

Aside from this, Sunga said members of the Philippine Public School Teachers Association (PPSTA) are protected by "a life insurance in case of accidents or dismemberment."

To ensure the conduct of clean, honest and transparent elections, Sunga said Comelec Resolution No. 7815 has been amended by Resolution No. 7842 requiring the posting of the second copy of the Certificate of Election Returns publicly within the premises of the election precinct for 48 hours.

"Everybody in the community will now know who win in this election immediately because this will be posted for 48 hours," Sunga said.

Republic Act No. 9369, which took effect in February, assigns new duties for BEI chairmen such as retrieving and taking custody of the second copy of the election returns posted on the precinct wall; taking custody of unclaimed copies of election returns assigned to the dominant majority party, dominant minority party and accredited citizens’ arm.

Sunga said that in previous elections, the second copy of the election returns went to the Comelec.

According to Sunga, the third copy of the election returns that usually goes to the provincial board of canvassers would now go to the Comelec, the fourth copy to the majority dominant party, and the fifth copy to the minority or the Liberal Party.

In line with its vow to bring the benefits of the growing economy to every household and community nationwide, the Arroyo administration is stepping up the implementation of its anti-poverty and pro-poor agenda, according to Secretary Domingo Panganiban of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC).

Panganiban said that consistent with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s "8 by 2008: Investing in People Thrust" and "Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program," NAPC and other concerned government agencies have identified several major thrusts designed to ensure that poor families benefit from the social payback of the government’s economic reforms.

"As the President mentioned recently, it is a time for social payback. Thus, our actions are geared more towards direct benefits to our people. We have outlined a lot of interventions which we hope to achieve well in advance, from loading targets we have originally set for 2010," Panganiban said in a May 4 update on the "Arroyo Administration’s Anti-Poverty and Hunger Thrusts."

Under the President’s wide-ranging "Plan 7, 8, 9" which refers to the growth targets of the administration for the three years from 2007 to 2009, a new economic strategy has been concretized to achieve the eight blessings of a strong economy through the "8 by 2008" mantra.

The eight blessings, according to the President, are: job creation; better cost of living; a strong peso; more investments; pro-poor education; pro-poor health care, housing, food; green Philippines; and anti-terrorism.

Panganiban said that for education, the administration’s anti-poverty and hunger thrusts identified several major programs "that will improve sector-specific outcomes, such as school participation rate, enrolment, cohort survival rate, completion rate, and functional literacy rate.

The pro-poor education program also covers construction of school buildings, sustaining the 1:1 textbook-to-pupil ratio, and provisions of scholarships, both at the basic and tertiary-vocational levels.

"For school building, the Department of Education (DepEd) has already achieved its target of zero backlog one year in advance. It will further reduce classroom-to-student ratio which they target to be 1:45 and 1:40 in 2007 and 2008, respectively," Panganiban said.