REJOICE! The Easter season tells us because CHRIST LIVES! For the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, the just concluded National and Local Elections 2019 moves us to REJOICE because PPCRV LIVES! CHRIST, its CHAMP, has again boosted our hope with a glimpse of a Clean, Honest, Accurate, Meaningful and Peaceful Elections last May 13, 2019.
Why do I say this? Three important reasons:

1. Inspired participation of PPCRV’s new leadership
The new PPCRV leadership headed by Myla Villanueva, assisted by Executive Director Maribel Buenaobra and new Board of Trustees: John Victor de Dios, Christian Robert Lim, Henry Aguda, and Abp. Rolando Tria Tirona, treasurer Tess Curia, and new spokesperson Agnes Gervacio, put up a machinery within six months that went beyond expectation. This animated the support of PPCRV’s old guards like Fr. Dave, Arwin, Johnny, Jun, Paolo, Rene, and Moi, as well as the PPCRV Diocesan Coordinators nationwide and our cherished bishops.

2. Progressive IT participation of PPCRV Directors
New methods in the use of technology enhanced and migrated the PPCRV three-fold mandate onto cloud domain. For Voters Education and Poll Patching, Paolo Domondon and his team re- formulated PPCRV’s One Good Vote
for online usage. The Unofficial Parallel Count by PPCRV was sharpened to new formats of accuracy by our IT experts, Rommel Bernardo and William Yu. Proof of these are shown in the graphs and analyses printed in this magazine. One big factor for the transparency of NLE 2019 was the IT group’s accurate and timely reading of the audit logs from the COMELEC Transparency Server that somehow calmed the anxiety brought on by the now famous
seven-hour glitch.

3. Dynamic participation of Youth Volunteers

While volunteerism has always been an icon of PPCRV service, this time around the youth came marching in. To elicit new fervor among the young, a novel idea of naming PPCRV Youth Ambassadors who excel in their chosen specialized fields (i.e. sports, social media, academics, etc.) and who influence a formidable following in youth communities promoted the importance of participating in PPCRV. Their call to the young Filipinos to express love for God and country through pro-active participation in NLE 2019 coincided with the celebration of 2019 as the “Year of the Youth,” and its theme highlighting the youth as “Beloved, Gifted, Empowered.”

The AES (Automated Election System) ushered in solutions to some gargantuan problems in our electoral process. Definitely there was a wipe- out of retail and wholesale “dagdag- bawas.” But other corruptive practices continue to escalate like vote buying and selling. Technology can accelerate transformation, but transformation is a process of buildups, punctuated
by breakthroughs made possible through disciplined participation of the citizenry. In this, I pray for a disciplined people through the new Filipino voter; disciplined thought through a new responsible way of choosing candidates; disciplined action through unconditional and uncompromised participation in the electoral process.

My vision and dream when I organized the PPCRV in 1991 remains the same – a transformed political system that works
for the common good through elections that are efficient tools of authentic democracy; a Church of the Poor and for the Poor wherein the poor are the subjects and the agents of change;
and Youth who serve as the mirror of freedom and liberation of our nation.

The youthful leadership in PPCRV and the thousands of PPCRV Youth Volunteers rouse me to boldly declare (with a paraphrase of the Dominican theologian Yves Congar):

And now the youth have found their own place, they have found the voice to speak and act the Truth.

IT IS NOW THE TIME OF THE HEIRS.

I have been a poll-watcher for as long as I can remember, bearing witness to violence and brownouts, while manually counting taras. I’ve also heard of first-hand accounts of canvass and count manipulation and ballot box disappearances at the precinct levels. This was all due to the manual process and the sheer amount of time it took
to count and canvass our votes. For the youth who cannot remember, in a manual election system, the process took about two weeks to a month from vote to proclamation.

It was in November of 1996 that I saw firsthand an automated Presidential election unfold. Bill Clinton and Al Gore were running for re-election that evening. I was fortunate enough to have been invited to their Command Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here, I witnessed how a most open democracy cast their votes, count their votes and called the winners all within an evening in a very peaceful transition of power. Most importantly, there is trust that
the results represent the will of the people. I was in awe and hoped for the same peaceful and credible system for our country, by then a full-fledged democracy.

For those who don’t know me, I have founded five technology start-ups and have been in the technology industry for more than 30 years now. I schooled in the Jesuit tradition, in Santa Clara University in California, the center of Silicon Valley. It was there that the Jesuit values of Magis; doing more, striving for excellence and living a bigger story, and Women and Men for Others; that of sharing skills and having concern for the poor and marginalized, Forming and Educating Agents of Change; reflecting critical thought and responsible action on moral and ethical issues, was ingrained in me as a young student. Upon graduating in 1988, I got on a plane and came back to our young democracy at age 21, ready to do more. I now have two beautiful children, about the same age as when I started. My eldest is in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and my youngest is in the field of Film Studies. I am the CEO of one of the country’s leading systems integrators in technology; helping large corporations in their digital transformations. I mentor young people as much as I can, young technologists in my sphere, and young entrepreneurs, in my work as trustee for GoNegosyo.
I also champion a movement against single-use plastics in my work as a trustee of WWF, to protect the next generation and our environment.

My work in digital transformation led me to seek out the most credible citizens movement when our own electoral system was transforming from manual to automated in 2010. It was then that I found the PPCRV. I spent a whole afternoon with Chairperson Tita De Villa where my respect for her and the organization deepened. I cannot imagine a role more “mission impossible” than that of the PPCRV Chair. It is not an easy task to serve half a million lay volunteers, the clergy, and the nation. It is not easy balancing their aspirations, needs, and amazing goodwill. There is also navigating the COMELEC’s accreditation and regulatory process. There is the getting to know and reaching out to our dear Bishops and their diocesan communities. There is listening to the feedback, both negative and positive, of political personalities and parties. There is dealing with social and traditional media. There is the constant awareness and discipline that one must be non-partisan during the election cycle. Is there a job any more complex? Is there also a movement more beautiful with its lay volunteers and a church community bound together by Love of God and Love of Country in its purest form?