PPCRV:
the Catholic Church in politics
By Artemio V. Panganiban, Inquirer
12 March 2007
Honest,
orderly and peaceful elections. The Supreme Court is often referred
to as the last bulwark of democracy; but the first bastion is
honest, orderly and peaceful elections. Like the judiciary, the
Commission on Elections is constitutionally independent and granted
with more than sufficient powers and functions to conduct credible
elections.
In this heroic effort, the Comelec is luckily being assisted by
its reinvigorated citizens' arm, the Parish Pastoral Council for
Responsible Voting (PPCRV), led by its vision-driven president,
Ambassador Henrietta T. de Villa. The PPCRV is a national, parish-based,
political but nonpartisan, lay organization actively supported
by the Catholic hierarchy.
During
its three-day National Conference on March 9 to 11, to which I
had been invited as keynote speaker, PPCRV animated its diocesan
leaders with "Faith and Fire," so they could fulfill
its missions of voter education, and poll watching.
Voter
education. To make the electorate more aware of and knowledgeable
on social and political issues, the PPCRV conducts year-round
voter education in all parishes nationwide. It organized the Pinoy
Voters Academy and crafted three modules derived from popular
TV programs: (1) Pilipinas, Nag-Grow Ka Na Ba? (2) Kababayan,
Laban o Bawi? and (3) Halalan Idol.
The
first module analyzes the country's current political and economic
situation. The second imparts the social teachings and political
apostolate of the Church. The third explains the qualifications
that voters should look for in candidates. Recently, the Inquirer
published the PPCRV's "Ten Commandments for Responsible Candidacy"
and "Ten Commandments for Responsible Voting."
Poll
watching. The PPCRV's best-known activity is poll watching. It
is unleashing 620,000 poll watchers to monitor the 310,000 precincts
all over the country. To recruit its huge army, it is tapping
about 250 volunteers from each of the 2,700 parishes nationwide.
Additionally, the PPCRV is fielding SWAT (Social Witnesses Attesting
Truth) teams to oversee specific areas of concern, such as communications,
logistics, documentation and roving patrols.
It
plans to ask its volunteers to secure, after the counting of votes
in each polling precinct, a Certificate of Votes (COVs) duly authenticated
by the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI). They shall submit the
COVs to the PPCRV Voters Assistance Desk (VAD) in every polling
center.
The
parish coordinators shall gather all the COVs from the VADs and
forward them to the Arch/Diocesan Counting Centers for encoding,
encryption and transmittal through its special Internet system
to the PPCRV national office. The transmitted results shall then
be consolidated and published in wide screens at the PPCRV National
Operations Center and in its special, secure website (ppcrv.org),
as well as in the media outlets of the Catholic Church.
Indeed,
by helping the Comelec conduct clean elections, the PPCRV may
yet be our democracy's hope and champ in searching for visionary
and exemplary leaders.