THE Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) is eyeing to recruit some 500,000 volunteers for the May 9 elections, the poll watchdog’s chair, Myla Villanueva, said yesterday.
Villanueva also cautioned the public against vote-buying, adding the group has been receiving information that huge amounts of money are being offered to buy votes.
“We have about 300,000 volunteers but we are still short. We are tasked by the Comelec (Commission on Elections) to help in voter registration which we have already finished, voter education which is ongoing. and we are also training our volunteers on aspects of poll watching and the unofficial parallel count which is conducted from May 9 moving forward,” Villanueva told ANC channel.
Villanueva said volunteers must be aged 18 and older and fully-vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
“They can reach out to their local parish to find out which post they are needed. We promised you it will be meaningful and at the same time it will be fun and it will change your mindset about our fragile democracy, ” she said.
Villanueva also said the transparency server that will be used in the upcoming elections will be transferred to the University of Santo Tomas (UST) from its previous location at the Pope Pius Catholic Center along UN Avenue in Manila.
“We are moving our command center from the Pope Pius to UST because Pope Pius is rather small and we needed additional space in order to social distance,” she said.
The UST Quad Arena, Villanueva said, can house as many as 5,000 people, more than enough space to implement health protocols like social distancing amid the pandemic.
In the same interview, Villanueva asked the public to be vigilant as cheating in the elections is happening even before the voting on May.
“We hear a lot of issues about vote-buying and it’s very difficult for the PPCRV to catch that and report it. We’re hearing a lot of big numbers being offered to people and families in fact,” she said.
But she assured the public that there are many ways to protect against cheating in the elections, adding that they should feel confident about the various safeguards in the automated election system.
“Not only do we do a source code review, we also do monitoring at the end of voting time,” she said.
At the same time, the PPCRV chair said the campaign against poll cheating should be a national effort.
