As the day of casting of votes nears, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) has appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to conduct more debates to help educate the public about candidates' views and stands on various issues affecting Filipinos, and for them to present their platforms.

Comelec recently said that candidates who do not participate at debates could be a red flag to voters.

“We encourage as many debates as possible and we ask the Comelec to allow as many of them that the people want,” PPCRV Chairperson Myla Villanueva said during an interview with CNN Philippines, Friday night, Feb. 4.

“ are absolutely important. There's a chance to have conversation, a two-way conversation with people as opposed to just social media.”

Villanueva said that a lot needs to be done to improve “voter maturity” in the country, and to fight forces peddling misinformation on various social media platforms.

“A lot of fake news are going out on social media. This is not just a problem here but a global problem that's very difficult to resolve,” she said.

The PPCRV chairperson said they are helping voters in picking who they would elect in the coming elections.

“So, at the PPCRV, we really help voters to discern across what we call 16 values and, hopefully, in the discernment process, they also ensure that the sources of information are trusted and verified.”

‘e-Boto website’

PPCRV and fact-checkers movement Pinas Forward have recently launched “e-Boto” website (www.eboto.ph), aiming to empower voters by educating them with candidates’ detailed profiles.

“And so platforms like ‘e-Boto’, an upcoming platform of universities coming together called Academia is being launched soon also, and we support all of those platforms that allow, especially our young and first time voters, to learn how to think about the importance of their vote,” said Villanueva.

Saying since it’s the time of social media, the PPCRV chairperson told youth voters to “step back and think about the next six years and how this candidate will affect that way into the future.”

“Politics and choosing your candidates is a very emotional process and so we're really encouraging to stop and step back as the election comes near, to really get to know what are important to you, what are they planning to do, what are their plans for the future,” she said.

Safeguarding Votes

The election watchdog said the most important work of PPCRV in safeguarding the votes is poll watching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Villanueva, their volunteers need to monitor and poll watch for around 106,000 precincts, as well as manning the voter's assistance desk.

“Remember, we're having an election in the middle of the pandemic and so, we need to find out precints very quickly. And at the end of that evening, our volunteers also pick up the fourth copy of the return before it's transmitted,” she noted.

Villanueva said safeguarding the votes is a very committed process.

“Now, think about the scale of that, a hundred thousand pieces of election return. These are pieces of paper. These are brought at the command center, about 300 volunteers a day encode each of the ER to that compare that what was sent electronically by that VCM is exactly what that piece of paper has,” she said.

“So, when you match the two, you are in essence assuring and ensuring that walang dagdag-bawas was occuring.”