Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting
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Founded | October 1991 |
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Founder | H.E. Jaime Cardinal Sin, Haydee Yorac, Henrietta T. de Villa, Bishop Gabriel Reyes, Msgr. Bayani Valenzuela |
Type | Non-profit NGO |
Focus | Elections, plebiscites and referendums |
Location |
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Area served | Nationwide |
Services | Democracy reform in the Philippines |
Fields | Poll watching, advocacy, electoral reforms |
Key people | Henrietta T. de Villa (Chairperson) |
Volunteers | 500,000+ |
Website | http://www.ppcrv.org/ |
The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) is a non-profit organization that serves as a watchdog in Philippine elections. Despite being affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, it considers itself independent, non-partisan and non-sectarian in nature.
Its headquarters are located in Pope Pius XII Center, United Nations Avenue, Ermita, Manila.
History
The Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, held in February 1991, called for reforms in the conduct of Philippine elections. In May of 1991, in response to this call, H.E. Jaime Cardinal Sin, Comelec Commissioner Haydee Yorac, then-Laity President Henrietta T. de Villa, Bishop Gabriel Reyes, Msgr. Bayani Valenzuela and 30 parish lay leaders conceived PPCRV in Villa San Miguel in Mandaluyong City.
In October 1991, PPCRV was launched in St. Paul University, Quezon City, with about a thousand laypeople from the parishes of the Archdiocese of Manila. The next month, with the support of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the PPCRV expanded its operations nationwide.[1]
The first test of PPCRV's poll watching activities came in 1992 presidential elections. In its first electoral exercise, 346,688 PPCRV volunteers participated in poll watching, voters’ assistance, assisting the Board of Election Inspectors, protecting election returns, monitoring electoral exercise and watching the canvassing of votes.
The organization came into the limelight in October 2009 when it was the sole accredited poll watchdog for the first automated elections in 2010. Aside from assuring the conduct of clean elections, it was also tasked with voter's education and was awarded the 4th and 27th copies of the election returns for the conduct of parallel manual auditing of transmitted votes.
Functions
PPCRV's primary function is to ensure the conduct of clean, honest, accurate, meaningful and peaceful elections, as stipulated in their CHAMP backronym. However, they also have added functions, including:
- Advocacy of electoral reforms
- Conduct of parallel manual auditing in automated elections
- Coordination of parishes for poll watching
- Fielding of volunteers
- Provide legal assistance related to elections
- Reporting of electoral violations
- Voters assistance services
- Voter's education
Issues
PPCRV has been accused of being a Comelec lapdog since the conduct of the 2010 general elections, an allegation that the chairperson of PPCRV, Henrietta T. de Villa, disputes. The organization has been an official watchdog of the Commission of Elections since 2010.[2]
In 2010, it had objected to the National Movement for Free Elections' application as a citizen's arm of Comelec, stating that a dual system would interfere with election watch. However, NAMFREL had never objected PPCRV's applications as a citizen arm in previous elections.[3] The feud seems to be over as both parties were accredited by Comelec for 2013 midterm elections and agreed on their functions.[4]
There was an allegation of PPCRV receiving foreign funding in its operations, something that the organization denied.[5]
During the transmission of votes in the night after the polls closed on 2013 midterm elections, PPCRV server released inaccurate data which was attributed to the formatting-error in the server. The counting of transmitted results was suspended for an hour to fix the error in the server provided by Smartmatic.[6]
References
- ^ Our History. Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting. Retrieved 21 May 2013
- ^ PPCRV's Henrietta T. de Villa responds to allegations the org is acting as COMELEC lapdog. ABS-CBN News Channel. Retrieved 21 May 2013
- ^ 'Silent war' between PPCRV and NAMFREL worsens. ABS-CBN News Channel. Retrieved 21 May 2013
- ^ PPCRV now in 'kissing mode' with Namfrel. ABS-CBN News Channel. Retrieved 21 May 2013
- ^ PPCRV gets foreign funding, violates election law?. Rappler. Retrieved 21 May 2013
- ^ 'Formatting error’ mars PPCRV count. Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 21 May 2013