MANILA, April 28, 2016 – The Knights of Columbus in the Philippines will help promote Clean, Honest, Accurate, Meaningful, Peaceful (CHAMP) national and local elections by volunteering with the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).
“To secure the votes of the Filipino people, the four jurisdictions of the Knights of Columbus in the Philippines – the North and South Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao together with our insurance arm, the Knights of Columbus Fraternal Association of the Philippines, Inc has [a] partnership with the PPCRV both on the national and parochial level for the upcoming national election,” said Arsenio Isidro G. Yap, Chairman of the Knights of Columbus Fraternal Association of the Philippines, Inc (KCFAPI).
“We are calling all brother knights and other lay organizations to enlist your names as poll watchers and as citizen reporters of the Commission on Election,” Yap urged.
Wanted: computer literate volunteers
He added that the KC members will serve as precinct poll watchers while KCFAPI will encourage their fraternal counselors and area managers to serve with PPCRV in the local districts.
“We need 90 volunteers for encoding purposes only that will house the centralized command center in Intramuros, Manila,” Yap cited.
More computer literate volunteers, especially the youth, are needed to report anomalies and discrepancies during the elections. Food and transportation will be provided.
The partnership agreement stated that PPCRV shall:
- include the logo and name of the Knights of Columbus in its publications, promotions, media exposure, and similar materials;
- share its COMELEC accreditation with the Knights of Columbus, including its poll watcher’s ID for the latter’s volunteers who will serve as PPCRV poll watchers in previously identified polling precincts of specific voting centers;
- validate/certify with COMELEC (national and local) the Knights of Columbus volunteers who will serve as PPCRV poll watchers;
- share relevant information/documents with media and other agencies, that assist and enhance the voting experience
Partnership agreement
For its part, the Knights of Columbus agreed to do the following:
- organize PPCRV activities on voters’ education and election monitoring that will achieve the partnership advocacy for CHAMP national and local elections;
- comply with PPCRV’s mandated task as COMELEC’s accredited citizen’s arm;
- provide prior to elections the names of the volunteers it mobilized who will serve as the poll watchers and bear the PPCRV COMELEC-approved ID
- assure that said volunteers are non-partisan, non-candidates nor immediate family members of any candidate and as much as possible, have some information technology knowledge
PPCRV national chairperson, Amb. Henrietta T. De Villa; KCFAPI chairman of the Board of Trustees, Arsenio Isidro G. Yap; Luzon North Deputy, Jose C. Reyes, Jr; Luzon South Deputy, Ramoncito A. Ocampo; Visayas Deputy, Anthony P. Nazario; and Mindanao Deputy, Reynaldo C. Trinidad signed the said partnership agreement on April 7.
KCFAPI spiritual sirector and Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines media director Msgr. Pedro C. Quitorio III and KCFAPI executive vice president Ma. Theresa G. Curia witnessed the said event. (Yen Ocampo/ CBCPNews)
