Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Z. Duterte assured Monday the welfare of the teachers serving the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) 2023.

In an interview after casting her vote at the Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School here, Duterte said the DepEd, the Commission on Elections (Comelec), and the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to protect teachers from potential election offenses and administrative complaints.

“There have been incidents in the past elections wherein teachers encountered problems and some were killed while serving the elections. Comelec and PAO have helped us so that the teachers will have representation if they want to file cases or if they received threats, or if they want legal support,” the Vice President said.

Apart from that, Duterte mentioned the established Comelec command center that included a DepEd desk to monitor the teachers serving in the BSKE.

“The command center is located at the Comelec main office and there are personnel from DepEd who monitor reports from the field operations regarding the problems encountered by the teachers serving in the BSKE,” she added.

For the BSKE 2023 elections, Duterte said DepEd will receive reports from its field operations from noon to 5 p.m. and even beyond until counting is over.

Duterte has urged the public to cast their votes and exercise their right to choose their barangay leaders.

“The role of the barangay officials is very important because they are our front-liners in our community,” she said. (PNA)