By Julia Marie Mangmang

An online forum on voter conversations titled  “Safeguarding the Vote, Protecting the Ballot” was conducted on January 14, 2022, featuring guest speakers such as Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Spokesperson James Jimenez, National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) Chairperson Augusto Lagman, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) Board Member William Yu, and 1SAMBAYAN Chairperson Antonio Carpio.

With the 2022 national elections fast approaching, the webinar discussed the measures taken by various private and government organizations to ensure the delivery of free and fair elections— the main defining hallmarks of democracy. 

In place of COMELEC Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, Jimenez tackled the different internal and external threats that the agency faces, what the COMELEC is doing to mitigate these risks, and what the public can do to help the commission. 

Jimenez emphasized that the phrase “protect the vote” goes beyond protecting the ballot, naming low transparency in the election body, the unpredictability of election rules, Automated Election System (AES) issues, malfeasance, and incompetence as internal threats to the country’s election system.  

The spokesperson also enumerated the spread of disinformation, the current increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, attacks on election-related infrastructure and personnel, and tangible external threats such as vote-buying and bribery.

Despite all the dangers that the COMELEC has to deal with, Jimenez was quick to assure the public that the agency has made all the necessary arrangements to maintain the integrity and accuracy of the elections, pointing out that they planned the elections with the pandemic in mind, mentioning the availability of isolation areas in voting precincts for COVID-19 positive citizens who still want to exercise their right to vote.

As he ended his segment, the spokesperson called on the public to document and report misinformation and violations of the election laws when seen. 

NAMFREL Chairperson Lagman spoke after Jimenez, explaining NAMFREL’s vision “to strengthen democracy by helping ensure clean, honest, and credible elections and to empower the electorate to elect competent honest and public officials.” 

As the first election monitoring organization in the world, NAMFREL was also the first to introduce the operation quick count in the 1984 presidential election and gather more than 500,000 volunteers during the 1986 snap elections. 

Given the role that NAMFREL played in the previous elections, Lagman explained the role that the organization has played since its founding. 

From the monitoring of the deployment of ballots to observing voting precincts, post-election safety, and carefully handling the 27th copy of election returns, NAMFREL has recruited enough nonpartisan volunteers to take charge of these activities. 

Lagman was then followed by PPCRV Board Member William Yu who explained that just like NAMFREL, PPCRV has been championing Clean, Honest, Accurate, Meaningful, and Peaceful (CHAMP) elections since 1991.

PPCRV’s threefold mandate focuses on voter’s education, poll-watching, and unofficial parallel counts. 

The organization conducts educational campaigns that not only include election technicalities but also contain value formation— all of which can be accessed by anyone on the Internet through their website: www.ppcrv.org.

In addition, the PPCRV has trained volunteers to oversee physical and digital polls, man assistance desks, participate in mock elections, and help all voters navigate through voting precincts. 

When these precincts close, Yu mentioned the importance of collecting the fourth copy of the election returns, making sure that none of these have been tampered with, along with comparing the digital results to the unofficial manual counts. 

Yu also called for volunteers to assist in PPCRV’s operations as they are in need of roughly 218,000 participants nationwide. 

Lastly, retired Supreme Court Justice Carpio, who now sits as the chairman of 1SAMBAYAN, which is a broad coalition of groups working for good governance, started his segment by pointing out that all election paraphernalia will be delivered by one logistics company. 

According to Carpio, this in itself presents three vulnerabilities in the AES: paraphernalia may be tampered with, electronic transmission can be hacked as it moves from one transmission to another, and some ballots may be pilfered.

To avoid those from happening, Carpio presented a list of measures that 1SAMBAYAN will take; namely, the verification of the number of ballots, monitoring and conducting of manual audits, and taking photos of election returns. 

Carpio also brought up the development of an application that can allow the sending of election returns to a transmission tower that can be used by anyone, successfully deterring would-be hackers and preventing anomalies. 

As a parting message to the voters, all speakers encouraged the public to go out and vote, while asking for volunteers to assist the different organizations in making sure that the elections are conducted safely and accurately. 

Lagman and Yu shared their dream of the day when election watchdogs will no longer be necessary, hoping that less candidates will cheat and all voters would willingly watch the polls; however, until then, organizations like 1SAMBAYAN, PPCRV, and NAMFREL will be here. 

Photo source: Rappler