PPCRV doubts it can field enough poll watchers for Caraga Region

BUTUAN CITY — Leaders of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) in the Caraga Region have expressed doubt if they can field enough poll watchers to guard all the 2,145 polling precincts in the region, saying some of their volunteers have already been recruited by political parties. But in a press conference at Fr. Saturnino Urios University (FSUU) here, Rev. Fathers John Young, FSUU President and Randy Jasper C. Odchigue, FSUU Policy Center Director, also assured newsmen that the PPCRV is already ready for the May elections. Asked how much ready is “being ready" or by what percentage is their preparedness for the polls, they said: “Basta, We are ready." Butuan Bishop Juan De Dios Pueblos is the PPCRV Chairman for the two Agusan provinces (Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur) with a total 1,012 clustered polling precincts covering 24 municipalities and three cities. The Caraga Region has a total of 1,378,132 registered voters, in 1,310 barangays. The two Agusan provinces have 683,634 voters. FSUU serves as PPCRV secretariat office for the Agusan provinces. Several meetings dedicated to training volunteer preparedness, availability and on poll watching skills in different parishes in the Diocese of Butuan had been conducted, according to the FSUU officers. “The most common problem of parish priests is that propective PPCRV volunteers have been already taken by different political parties, parang naunahan na kami. Thus, we cannot assure we have enough volunteers to cover the 1,012 polling precincts", they added. They said each parish needs to recruit at least two poll watchers per precinct cluster, or a total of 2,024 volunteers. Also, they said that unlike political parties the PPCRV is not giving allowances poll watchers – they are purely parish-based volunteer workers. On the other hand, Caraga Police Regional Chief for Operations Senior Supt. Nestor Monton Fajura told GMANews.TV that SMARTMATIC officials’ request to provide two policemen per polling precinct to guard the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines were impossible because of lack of manpower. Fajura however assured SMARTMATIC officials that the entire police force in the region throws its support for efforts to secure of the PCOS machines. — Ben Serrano/LBG, GMANews.TV