THE Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Vote (PPCRV) sees no irregularities in the voting turnout that its staff has been monitoring thus far.
This comes after social media users noticed a “68:32” pattern on votes of presidential candidates Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Leni Robredo.
PPCRV chair Myla Villanueva said in an interview with reporters yesterday that they are probing the reports that were observed by social media users.
“When we saw it this morning, we asked some academic institutions … and I invited them to look at the data. At the moment, since this afternoon, they have recorded no irregularities in that pattern,” Villanueva added.
The University of Santo Tomas and the Ateneo de Manila University have so far investigated the pattern.
However, Villanueva asked the public for more time, as she invited other academic institutions – the University of the Philippines and the De La Salle University – to also check the data.
According to PPCRV spokesperson Vann dela Cruz in a separate interview, the “68:32” trend is, so far, “no cause for concern”.
The Church-based poll watchdog has received 4,925 election returns as of 6:15 p.m. last night.
There are around 106 000 election returns nationwide.
Currently, the PPCRV is matching the fourth copy of election returns that have been printed from the vote counting machines (VCMs).
The physical returns would be matched to the electronic returns reflected on the transparency servers.
Dela Cruz stated they are coordinating with the Commission on Elections regarding the reported VCM failures.
The PPCRV, meanwhile, noted that it does not need any more volunteers until May 15 amid with the sudden influx of volunteers yesterday.
“If we need more volunteers, we would ask for help. What we need right now is … food donations for the volunteers,” she said.
