PPCRV-Capiz trains volunteers as poll watchers
Roxas City -- The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) -- Capiz Chapter will culminate this week its training of volunteers for poll watching in over 32 parishes provincewide as part of its preparations for the upcoming May 14 local and national elections.
Monsignor Vicente Hilata, Capiz Archdiocese Vicar General and PPCRV -- Capiz Chapter Chairman, said the training aimed to discuss as well as orient the volunteers on their role during election day.
The PPCRV will also put up an assistance desk in voting centers to help address voters' problems and concerns with concerned authorities.
The Council has also facilitated the conduct of a day-long "Pinoy Voters Academy Training for Trainors on Voters Education" last February as part of its continuing promotion for responsible voting.
The PPCRV and other civil society watchdogs obtained the support of the government in its call for more poll watchers in its campaign for vigilance against fraud and violence.
"Government considers people's vigilance as the most effective antidote to electoral fraud and therefore encourages involvement of the citizenry in ensuring clean, peaceful and honest elections," said an official statement from Malacañang.
"With the election related violence escalating in some provincial hot spots, the Commission on Elections and the Philippine National Police are called upon to take a much more aggressive position in identifying responsibilities and anticipating further local tensions with the end view of averting any more bloodshed," the dispatch added.
(PIA/A.Lumaque)