The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it did not issue any order for the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) to stop its monitoring of vote counts during the recent May 9 general elections.
“Hindi mangyayari yan (That will not happen). PPCRV is vested with that independence, that they are our partners. PPCRV is not under Comelec and we cannot order them to stop,” said Comelec Acting-Spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco in a press briefing at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City on Wednesday, May 11.
“To further vet the elections, alam nyo ano ginagawa nila (do you know what they are doing)? They're not encoding the electronically transmitted results, what they are encoding are the printed ERs . Katulad ng sinabi ko sa inyo, ieencode nila lahat ito kaya napakarami nilang volunteers (As I've said, they encode it all that is why they have several volunteers),” he added.
At present, the PPCRV has yet to observe any discrepancies, said Laudiangco.
“Right now, PPCRV is reporting—wala silang nakikitang (they do not observe) any issues with their hard copies of the ER,” he said.
“In fact, even the Octa research group— they have already spoken that they raised no alarms or objections. Finally, with Namfrel— is independent from Comelec, PPCRV—also they are stating that the results are consistent with the pre-election surveys and they are echoing the observations of PPCRV,” he added.
If the PPCRV decides to conduct an investigation with regards to the conduct of the general elections, the Comelec assured that it will cooperate with them.
“But then again, should the PPCRV investigate, we welcome that. Partners po kami (We are partners) and we will extend the fullest cooperation with the PPCRV,” said Laudiangco.