Only thirty minutes.

This is the length of voting time that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has given teachers who will serve as Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) in the May 10 polls.

In Resolution No. 8798, the Comelec said BEIs on Election Day may vote in the precinct where they are registered, provided that they do so when the voting in their respective places of assignment is light, and their absence shall not be for more than 30 minutes.

“For this purpose, they shall schedule their voting so that only one member of the BEI shall leave at any one time,” read the resolution promulgated last March 16, 2010.

The resolution amended Section 12 of Comelec Resolution 8786 which states that a BEI’s absence shall not be for more than 20 minutes.

Earlier teachers asked the Comelec to give them more time to vote.

“The 20 minutes time to vote given to teachers that’s not enough,” Department of Education Undersecretary Franklin Sunga said. He said an additional 10 minutes will not be enough due to the traffic situation in the country.

“If they will just consider the traffic situation another 10 minutes might not make a difference. At any rate, we are very appreciative of that,” said Sunga.

Aside from extending the voting time of teachers , the Comelec said BEIs who are registered voters in precincts other than where they are assigned, may also choose to avail of the Local Absentee Voting.

Local absentee voting was created for civilian government officials and employees and members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and Bureau of Corrections who are registered voters and who, on election day, are temporarily assigned to perform election duties in places where they are not registered.