PPCRV to continue validating poll returns even Comelec proclaims winners

PPCRV chair Myla Villanueva. INQUIRER.net file photo / Gabriel Pabico Lalu

MANILA, Philippines – The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) will continue to validate election returns even after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) proclaimed the winners of the 2019 mid-term polls.

PPCRV national chairperson Myla Villanueva said that if the Comelec will proclaim the official winners, the digitally-transmitted election returns will stop by that time.

“We don’t have to be 100 percent, that count is finished,” Villanueva said about the electronic transmission.

However, Villanueva said that they will still continue to encode digitally-transmitted election returns (ER) .

“Every ER na dumarating dito pinaghirapan ng volunteer,” the PPCRV chair said. “We will make sure it is encoded.”

As of 3:12 p.m. on Saturday, election returns from 1,313 clustered precincts have yet to be transmitted. 

She said that they aim to finish the validation within two to three weeks, unlike in 2016 where they spent months.

Villanueva added that the PPCRV also wanted to maintain a high match rate of validated election returns, which was now at 99.98 percent as of Friday afternoon.

“It’s relevant  to the public to know that 99.98 percent of the time there is no ‘dagdag-bawas,'” Villanueva said. “We want to be able to say that 99.98 percent of all of the ERs  encoded matched. For us to do that we have to finish all the ERs  that comes here.” (Editor: Jonathan P. Vicente)