PPCRV AN ELECTION COOK-UP?

Election watchdog NAMFREL or National Movement for Free Elections had not likely handed the 2010 election stewardship to the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) on rightful terms. It was rather a cooked-up plot inside the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) after pronouncing the PPCRV’s accreditation in nearly 21-days. PPCRV represented by Ambassador Henrietta T. De Villa and Counsels- Attys. Howard M. Calleja and Rosalie Lapuz filed their petition before the COMELEC October 05 of last year. A week after (October 14), PPCRV’s petition was shortly discussed on a COMELEC hearing and was dubiously granted twelve days later on the 26th of October of same year. It was a decision reached after COMELEC found the lack of “oppositors” or else an opposing party that would relatively question the validity of PPCRV; could be publicly acceptable but still why is there a need for the shortcut of the process?

PPCRV clearly filed its petition on the height of a state catastrophe when issues like “election watchdog accreditation” did not sound interesting, else important. Who in their right mind would have thought of 2010 elections barely a week after Ondoy took a good hit on Metro Manila? Even the country’s papers and radio stations paid no attention on such an issue, why would the frantic public think otherwise. This was the long days of rescue and retrieval operations where huge part of Marikina and Pasig is still plummeting on deep murky flood. It is downright obvious that the mere two weeks for PPCRV’s accreditation campaigns did not reach a good length of keeping the public aware that they “exist”. Now, why or who would muster the thought to throw an argument against it over COMELEC?

So what will one get over speeding-up PPCRV’s accreditation? Else, how significant will PPCRV be in the coming elections? And just why someone go through the trouble of making sure that it will get its “YESES” in COMELEC?

Accredited election watchdogs, which had been the role of NAMFREL for the past thirty-one years since 1983, serve as elections’ neutral and else monitoring group. These groups have their own set of poll watchers on various precincts, including the conduct of voters’ assistance and information on values education on city outskirts. PPCRV upon getting COMELEC’s accreditation is mandated to independently supervise the elections. They are to maintain neutrality and impartiality during the entire course of the voting period down to the poll counting and the pronouncement of winners. On such process, they give the public updates on the partial casting of ballots or the renowned NAMFREL quick count. The public, so to speak, rely on this election watchdogs to counter-check the election results. Most of the time, they had been favored highly reliable in terms of ballot counting.

Try to imagine PPCRV putting-up his trick or two during the elections. What if their quick counts were made “literally quick”? PPCRV manage to “cheat” their way in for the accreditation. How dependable will PPCRV be in terms of releasing election results that are as important as the presidency when they have cheated their way in COMELEC?