BAGUIO CITY – Around 1,600 teachers will be deployed as election officers in polling precincts in the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) here on October 30, the Department of Education-Baguio City said.

In a meeting by the City Joint Security Control Center (CJSCC) at the Baguio City Police Office, Soraya Faculo, officer-in-charge Schools Division Superintendent (SDS) of DepEd, said that the number is almost half of the agency’s total teaching force.

Faculo said they are ready to serve in the elections and can be trained in September.

She said they will submit to the Comelec the names of teachers who will serve as members of the electoral board on October 30.

Faculo added that most of the teachers who will assist in the elections here are relatively young and can overcome the various challenges from the manual election.

John Paul Martin, Baguio election supervisor, said that this city has 169,711 adult voters and 46,762 registered SK voters who are eligible to vote on October 30.

Martin said they are confident that voters, especially SK, will come out and cast their ballots.

The Comelec here is conducting voter education in SK groups and schools.

Martin said that in 2018, more than 20 out of the 128 barangays here failed to elect SK officials because no young voters registered for the polls.

More than half of the 128 barangays failed to reach the "quorum" or did not have candidates for SK chairman.