Faith-based network Philippine-Misereor Partnership Inc (PMPI) launched on Wednesday, February 2, a campaign aimed at educating and helping voters choose candidates in the coming national elections.
Dubbed “Power of Purple,” the campaign has a website that serves as a depository of profiles of candidates for president and vice president and their stand on social, moral, environmental, and political issues.
Included in the candidates’ profiles are their position on issues concerning the environment, disaster risk reduction, good governance, peace, human rights, agriculture and fisheries, and mining.
Yolanda Esguerra, PMPI national coordinator, said the education campaign analyzes and classifies the candidates’ records that voters can use in their “discernment or selection process.”
PMPI, a network of more than 230 member organizations across the country, has been conducting research on the candidates’ advocacies and platforms even before the election period.
“These will be classified and indexed per thematic concern,” said Esguerra, adding that PMPI also sent candidates a questionnaire “to ascertain their position on certain issues.”
The responses of the candidates from the questionnaire will be reconciled with their advocacies and platforms “to determine whether or not their pronouncements are consistent with what they have been doing as public officials.”
“This is a tool for discernment,” said Esguerra. “We offer this to the public for them to use to evaluate who to choose in the coming elections.”
After the consolidation of the data, the candidates are graded by a scoring rubric.
The public can visit the website of PMPI to view the tally and see the profiles of the candidates.
