ELECTION DAY. Voters cast their ballots during for 2013 midterm elections.
ABOUT 180 Atenean volunteers participated in the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting’s (PPCRV) manual audit of election returns last Wednesday, May 15.
Ateneo Task Force (ATF) 2013, together with The Assembly, the Sanggunian and the Ateneo Resident Students Association (ARSA) organized the contingent. It was held at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Manila.
Volunteers were tasked with sorting out and encoding the printed election returns sent to the PPCRV from polling precincts all over the country. The encoded data was then compared with the results transmitted by the Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) machines.
Celina Rotea, member of the PPCRV secretariat and a Political Science senior, explained that this is a “verification process” that aims to “countercheck the official [count] made by the Comelec (Commission on Elections).”
The accredited citizen’s arm of the Comelec, the PPCRV has had volunteers from different dioceses, schools and organizations helping out since the audit started last Tuesday, May 14.
Pursuing clean elections
ATF 2013 head Ian Agatep noted that the Ateneo has been involved in elections “even before 2007.”
“But if [we are talking about] volunteer-work… It started in 2010. We went here in Pope Pius to encode because that was when the automated elections system had just started,” Agatep said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Agatep said that the event was part of ATF 2013’s last phase, which was voters’ mobilization. “That means that after we vote, we really pursue clean, honest, meaningful and peaceful elections.”
Volunteer Don Bernard Damasco Ty, a Social Sciences senior, believes that this effort will help ensure that all votes will be accounted for.
Ty gave two reasons for volunteering: “First, there are bonus points [for a class]. Second, I wasn’t able to vote because I am from the province. This is the least that I can do,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Ariane Geronimo, a Consular and Diplomatic Affairs junior from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde said that by volunteering, she proves herself a responsible Filipino citizen.
Commitment to nation building
Vice President for the Loyola Schools John Paul Vergara was “glad” about the Ateneans’ participation. “They should be aware of what’s going on. I hope they vote if they’re old enough to vote, and they should understand the importance of elections,” he said.
Vergara thinks this effort will “help increase confidence” in automated elections. He also looks forward to preparing for the 2016 elections. “We should learn from what happened [this year] and figure out ways to improve,” he said. “Like when I voted, it took me two hours and I’m sure there are systems engineering ways to improve it. At the same time, we need to educate people on how to vote wisely and how to participate.”
For Agatep, the event seeks to engage Ateneans in the electoral process. “The entire event is really for the Ateneans to understand that they have to be part of something bigger—That it’s not just their vote but it’s also the vote of everyone else. We also have to understand that ‘engage’ doesn’t necessarily mean going out and voting. It can also be translated into volunteerism. Being a volunteer in itself shows Ateneo’s commitment to nation building.”
