CLARK FREEPORT -- At least 75,858 public school teachers and principals of the Department of Education (DepEd) Central Luzon cast their votes in the series of regionwide certification elections.
The certification election was held by the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) in Central Luzon.
Certification election in the public sector is a process of determining through secret ballot the sole and exclusive negotiation agent of all covered employees in an appropriate negotiating unit for the purpose of collective negotiation.
Dole-Central Luzon Director Ma. Zenaida Angara-Campita reported to Labor Secretary Bello III that there was an 81 percent qualified voter turnout in the conducted certification election.
"Aside from the 73,699 eligible voters who participated, 2,024 principals on the agreed list, as well as some 135 unlisted supervisors and principals had their votes cast but were separated and considered as challenged," Campita said.
The contending unions in this election were the Alliance of Concerned Teachers Region III (ACT-ROIII) and Action and Solidarity for Empowerment of Teachers-Central Luzon Union (Assert).
Voters may choose either of the two or may opt to vote for no union.
"With the manpower that Dole have, we, together with representatives from the two contending unions and DepEd management, agreed to schedule each province on a separate day. All in all, there were 108 polling places distributed in seven provinces," Angeles said.
Aurora had five polling places: Zambales with 14; Bataan with 12; Pampanga with 20; Tarlac with 14; Nueva Ecija with 24; and Bulacan with 19.
Of the total 73,699 eligible votes cast, Assert garnered 34,386 votes (47 percent), while ACT-ROIII received 30,717 (42 percent).
While meeting the first majority condition (that is more than 50 percent of eligible voters participated), the double majority rule was not satisfied as the union with the most number of votes, which in this case is Assert, did not meet more than 50 percent of the total votes cast.
A run-off election is yet to be scheduled to finally determine the sole and exclusive negotiation agent of public school teachers in Central Luzon.
"We need another election called run-off since none of the three choices received the majority of the valid votes cast. In this run-off election, only the labor unions receiving the two highest number of votes, Asser and ACT-ROIII, are in contention. The no union option is no longer included," Angeles said.
Together with Angeles, the Dole-Central Luzon personnel assisted in 108 polling places regionwide.
