The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will investigate an alleged incident in Cotabato wherein electoral staff trained by the poll body were replaced with untrained personnel to serve as part of the Electoral Board (EB).
In a press briefing on Thursday, May 5, Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said that they will verify how true the report is or if there were grounds to actually replace the teachers since there are procedures and guidelines that need to be followed.
The EB refers to the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) and Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) who will conduct the final testing and sealing of Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) as well as the voting and counting and transmission of election results.
Casquejo said that he has referred the report to the Comelec's head on the Committee of Human Resource and Training. He said that once a person has been certified by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) he or she can no longer be replaced.
"Kasi (Because) one of the requirements para makapag-serve yung isang (to be able to serve as the) electoral board, one of the members or electoral board must be certified by the DOST," he said.
"So kapag pinalitan yun ng di certified magkakaproblema tayo dun (So if that will be replaced with someone who is not certified then we will have a problem)," he added.
Casquejo also said that they will speak to the Regional Election Director (RED) in the area as well as the Provincial Election Supervisor (PES).