The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting reported a “100 percent match rate” in its manual validation of election returns with the partial and unofficial count of the Commission on Elections of votes cast during the May 9, 2022, elections.
As of noon time Wednesday, the PPCRV has so far processed 16,820 election returns at its command center at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
The first batch of election returns came from Metro Manila and the provinces of Pangasinan, Laguna, Bulacan, Cavite, Sorsogon, Rizal, and Ilocos Norte.
The figure, however, represents only 15.8 percent of the total 106,174 local election returns expected to be encoded and validated by the poll watchdog.
The election returns contain voting precinct data, including the vote tally, number of registered voters and voter turnout.
In an interview with CNN Philippines, Myla Villanueva, chairperson of PPCRV, said there have been delays in getting physical copies of the election returns from several areas.
“Some are from the mountains. People are riding horses, doing any way they can to get to [the command center],” she said.
The PPCRV has fielded volunteers across the country who are helping with the manual validation of the physical copies of the election returns.
Villanueva, meanwhile, appealed to the public to stop sharing unverified information to avoid doubt in the election process.
“Let us take it slowly. It is important that no one will doubt our democracy, so please be careful,” she said.
