Jone Manalo

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) reaffirmed its trust in the electoral process after announcing that the 21,066 election returns (ERs) encoded from physical copies matched perfectly with the corresponding digital counterparts in the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) transparency server.

Photo Courtesy of Facebook/Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting.

As of May 14, PPCRV has processed approximately 92.7% of the 22,802 ERs it received.

“Nasa 92.7% na kami ngayon at sila ay nasa 99%,” PPCRV National Coordinator Dr. Arwin Serrano said.

Serrano explained that confusion during the early hours of transmission was expected due to a new system setup involving multiple transparency servers for various accredited groups.

“Kaya doon sa mga panimula na bugso ng mga transmission, syempre yung ating Comelec Central Server at yung ating Local Conversation Server, ano na 'yan. ‘Yan na yung nakagisnan natin mula pa noong 2010,” he stated.

This year, each accredited group received data through its own dedicated server, which PPCRV supports as a step toward greater transparency.

“Sumusuporta rin kami sa paghiwalay ng dating isang transparency server na ngayon meron na kaming mga sarili-sariling server,” Serrano said.

While concerns circulated on social media about results appearing minutes after polls closed, Serrano clarified that verifying the authenticity of transmissions is beyond the PPCRV’s mandate.

“It is not PPCRV’s mandate to determine the truthfulness of transmissions,” he explained.

He emphasized that any data mismatch between physical and digital ERs would be alarming, but no such discrepancies were found.

Serrano also stressed that the PPCRV relies on its precinct volunteers to validate incidents reported in the field.

“Ang tangi lang namin ma-validate ‘yan kung kukontakin namin ang aming volunteer sa presinto na ‘yan,” he added.

He expressed appreciation for Comelec’s assistance during election day operations.

“Napapasalamat kami sa Comelec through the leadership of SP Garcia na nakatulong talaga sa call center operations namin,” he remarked.

In response to allegations of transmission irregularities, PPCRV called for continued improvement and greater technical transparency from Comelec moving forward.

“So ito rin ‘yan moving forward at ito ay ma-input natin para sa paghahanda sa 2028 elections,” Serrano said.

The PPCRV continues its unofficial parallel count and calls on the public to remain vigilant and accurately report election-related concerns.