Let's acknowledge the teachers

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

If there is one group of people that we must never fail to thank after every Election Day, it is the public school teachers. Every three years, they are forced into life-threatening labor as they troop to their schools-turned-into-voting-precincts and supervise the millions of Filipinos who vote for their leaders for the next three years.

All throughout Election Day, they will be verifying the identities and assisting the voters, making sure all the voting procedures are properly followed. When night falls, their jobs will only have just begun, as they buckle up for the manual counting of the votes, a primitively tedious process that generally lasts long into the night. All throughout that long day and night, while they do a job that they cannot refuse, the teachers will have to contend with the many dangers of a Philippine election. As evidenced by the death of teacher Nellie Banaag of the Pinagbayanan Elementary School in Taysan Batangas, the potential for harassment, violence, and even death is still very much a part of our ancient electoral process.

Aside from physical harm, our teachers are also putting their reputations at stake every time they go on poll duty because they are the ones who count the ballots, the second half of their job that keeps them working deep into the night. Even when desperate politicians resort to accusing teachers of cheating, effectively calling them crooks and liars, they still return to their posts every three years.

It can't be the money, because all teachers get from election duty is a measly allowance. It can't be fame or glory. After all, this is a thankless job, one that the public is mostly unaware of, one that the winners simply forget after being proclaimed, and one that the losers use as a convenient scapegoat as they scream about being robbed. All it can be is a deep sense of duty that turns ordinary people into heroes, something that we should, at the least, recognize and be thankful for.*