MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) cannot give overtime pay for teachers who served as poll watchers, according to agency Chairman George Garcia on Thursday.

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) had appealed to the Comelec to grant teachers overtime pay for working non-stop for more than 24 hours.

“In as much as we would like to give, however, there is this joint COA-DBM (Commission on Audit – Department of Budget and Management) circular which provides that only employees of an agency [are] entitled to claim overtime. The teachers who served as electoral board members are not employees of Comelec,” Garcia told reporters when asked about the TDC’s request.

Garcia also said that a budget was not provided for such items.

The TDC has appealed to allow overtime pay for teachers, saying that some have reached around 30 hours of work for the elections.

“Many of our Department of Education employees work beyond 24 hours and are thus entitled to overtime pay,” TDC Chair Benjo Basas said.