One Good Vote—A Meaningful Election

“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” is the motto emphasized by the Project Lead and Regional Coordinator of ECHAMP-PPCRV-NAMFREL, Fr. Archimedes A. Lachica, SJ every time he is asked about the goal of the project Operation: Election that is Clean, Honest, Accurate, Meaningful and Peaceful (E-CHAMP). Election was a very crucial day for all Filipino citizens. Pressure was all over the Philippines. Voters were patiently lining up. That’s why this motto means that every lay who volunteered during the election was a presence of goodness that the evil may not thrive.

Davao Association of Catholic Schools in partnership with the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), had finally conducted their initiatives and had deployed all their 5,574 volunteers in the Davao Region last May 9, 2016. Volunteers such as Boses ni Pedro, a group of students from San Pedro College, were in charge of the communication activities. They received calls from the field volunteers, poll watchers, voter’s assistants and concerned citizens, checked the social media if there were news that needed attention, gave assistance to voters who have encountered problems, called the Commission on Election (COMELEC) if there were situations that should be addressed by them, and recorded problems that occurred in the voting precincts.

There were radio group volunteers as well namely the Radio Emergency Communications Operation Network (RECON), Regional Emergency Assistance Communication Team Madayaw Durian (REACT), Kabalikat CIVI Communication 995, Explorer Group and the Quick Response Team from San Pablo Parish, who were in charge of communicating the far-flung places from the metropolis such as Panabo City, Tagum, Mati, Maragusan, Poblacion, Nabunturan, Digos, Bansalan and Padada.

During the election, minor problems arose: the malfunctioning and replacements of VCM machines at various precincts; a Partylist campaigning outside the school; Votes that did not match the receipts; Voters’ names that are not on the lists; Number of voters that did not match the counted ballots; No volunteers in some precincts; Voters who voted improperly and no Commission on Elections representatives.

The communication committee head Ms. Selle Sebandal has assured that their volunteers handled well the problems encountered in their designated precincts, “So far, okay man sila, naga update sila and naay mga urgent matters na na-handle man nila ug tarong. Kasagaran sa reports kay kinahanglan ug Comelec representatives unya ang ubang schools walay representatives so ginatawagan namo ang representatives. (So far, they are okay, they give updates and there were urgent matters occurred but they handled everything well. Most of the reports were of greatest concern of a COMELEC representative but since there are schools that have no COMELEC representative. Thus, we, as a communication committee do our part to contact the COMELEC representatives).” All the problems that occurred were resolved except for some delays of the election returns from other districts due to weak signal and proximity of the places. The DACS E-CHAMP volunteers had exhausted their effort to give aid to problems existed during the electoral process.

True to their goal: One good vote was kept, responsible citizens responded and a meaningful election was what they have accomplished during this 2016 National and Local Elections. (Jay Ann Peteros)