PPCRV launches Election Monitoring Manual

The Parish pastoral Council launched on February 21, 2007 the “Election Monitoring Manual”, a new and updated complete guidebook for the PPCRV Pollwatcher. It is like a bible for the women and men volunteers who will be PPCRV’s witnesses to the truth in the voting precincts nationwide

PPCRV’s Election Monitoring Manual contains everything a Pollwatcher should know on election day – before the opening of the polls, during the voting period, the counting of votes, and up to the different levels of canvassing. And all election procedures and rules come complete with illustrations. It is a workbook, the latest to be published, specifically designed for the Pollwatcher.

What is a Pollwatcher? According to the pollwatching training PPCRV gives to its volunteers, a pollwatcher is the caregiver in the voting precinct. Integrity and competence, the very qualities we look for in our candidates, are also the values inculcated in PPCRV’s Pollwatchers. Christian virtues of patient endurance and selfless service must be seen, heard and experienced by the voters, the BEIs, the COMELEC election officers with whom the Pollwatchers inter-act. Likewise, they symbolize the commitment of the Parish pastoral Council for Responsible Voting to get the votes cast counted correctly and tallied accurately.

PPCRV was organized in 1991 and its record of service as an accredited COMELEC’s citizen’s arm counts fifteen electoral exercises. In its efforts to help form the moral conscience of the Filipino voters towards responsible voting, as well as the moral conscience if the institutions involved in the electoral process towards clean, honest, accurate, meaningful, peaceful elections, the PPCRV volunteers have been the backbone of its mission. It is only right that the PPCRV Pollwatchers are given all the support they need to be effective in what they do – watch the polls.

Serious Pollwatchers can only happen through the seriousness of their formation and training. This Election Monitoring Manual is an indispensable part of its training. The launch date, Ash Wednesday which begins the Lenten season – underscores the fact that for the Pollwatcher-volunteers, sacrifices are part of their love offering. This Manual is also PPCRV’s tribute to the volunteers who give so much of themselves “without making noise.” It is “the heroism of the little ones” – the PPCRV Pollwatchers who might still transform Philippine elections into an act of God.

By Ambassador Henrietta T. de Villa
PPCRV National Chairperson

Ash Wednesday, 21 February 2007