PPCRV seeks 400,000 volunteers to man precincts in May polls

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) will help ensure that the vote counting machines (VCM) voter verification receipts are not brought out of polling precincts to prevent upsurge of vote-buying.

Henrietta de Villa, former ambassador to the Vatican and PPCRV national chair, said PPCRV must double the number of volunteers assigned as watchers since the voting on May 9 was expected to be longer and to make sure that the receipts would stay in the precincts.

The PPCRV chair, who was in Negros Occidental province, last week, said they needed 400,000 volunteers to man the 92,509 precincts nationwide.

The ideal ratio of PPCRV volunteers to precinct was four volunteers for every precinct.

PPCRV is open to volunteers from any religion provided they are nonpartisan and nonviolent, she said.

The Supreme Court has ordered the Commission on Elections to use voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) feature of the VCMs during the May 9 polls.

To allay fears that the issuance of receipts would encourage vote-buying, the high court told the Comelec to ensure that voter verification receipts be deposited in a separate ballot box and not taken out of the precinct.

The enabling of the VVPAT was also expected to extend voting hours.

De Villa, who joined a PPCRV training in the Diocese of San Carlos on March 21, said the council was recruiting about 800,000 volunteers to man assistance desks at voting centers and to watch the transport of ballot boxes.

PPCRV, she said, has been conducting voters’ education campaigns against vote-buying and -selling as well as to call on people to come up with “informed, principled and conscience votes.”

“We should vote for public officials based on their character, competence and wholeness as a person,” she said.