MANILA, Philippines — The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said Tuesday they will be cutting their manual encoding of election returns (ER) at 10 p.m. and will resume around 8 a.m. the following day.
PPCRV spokesperson Agnes Gervacio said the new batch of encoders will work in three shifts — from 8 a.m. to 12 noon, 12 noon to 4 p.m., and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Around 100 volunteer encoders are deployed in every shift.
But those who opt to stay beyond 8 p.m. may do so until 10 p.m.
Despite the cancellation of the graveyard shift of the encoding process, Gervacio said it would not delay the process since they will be receiving election returns and electronic results overnight.
“We don’t think it is going to further delay kasi we’re able to keep up naman with the election returns as we receive them,” Gervacio told reporters at the PPCRV Command Center in Manila.
Gervacio explained that election returns that will be received at night will be sorted. They will be encoded by the first batch of encoders on duty in the morning.
“We will still have personnel here because we will continue to be receiving copies of election returns from the field,” Gervacio said, adding that they expect to finish their manual encoding of election results in two to three weeks.
Gervacio, however, clarified that the move was implemented not because of lack of volunteer encoders.
“We’re receiving more volunteers coming in from partner schools, coming in from organizations, we’re still receiving offers from workplaces,” Gervacio said.
“It is a touching thing. We don’t know how to thank our volunteers enough. PPCRV won’t be PPCRV if it weren’t for our volunteers,” she added.
Gervacio said they have started receiving election returns, with the bulk coming from Manila, Caloocan, Quezon City.
She added that they have received nearly 10 percent of the physical copies of election returns nationwide and are expecting more copies on Wednesday. (Editor: Eden Estopace)
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