By Ferdinand Patinio | Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) on Wednesday, Feb. 9, said its transparency server for the May 9 elections has been moved to a bigger place to ensure the safety of the volunteers from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) threat.
PPCRV chairperson emeritus Henrietta de Villa said the leadership of the church-based election watchdog has decided to move the server from the Pope Pius Catholic Center along United Nations Avenue to the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Arena along España Blvd. also in Manila.
“The command center used to be there (Pope Pius Catholic Center) that’s where we used to receive the electronic results on our transparency server because it is small for pandemic needs social distancing and all of that. The size and the facilities of Pius (center) are no longer enough,” she said at the Laging Handa briefing.
De Villa added that they looked for another place and they found that the UST venue is “very ideal.”
“It’s the size, it can accommodate 5,000 people so the social distancing is for the media to go there. The volunteers especially of PPCRV can ensure your safety according to social distancing protocols. The many facilities within the floor and below it. Plenty of room to fit the needs of the command center especially for pandemic times,” De Villa added.
On the other hand, Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesperson James Jimenez on Tuesday said their transparency server team is looking to meet with the members of the media next week.
“I spoke with the transparency server team yesterday and they are planning on holding an alignment meeting with members of the media as early as next week,” he added.
The poll body official said the whole operation of the transparency server will be moved to UST.
“One of the things which we already confirmed is that we will no longer be using the Pope Pius facility and we are going to be moving that entire operation to the Quad Arena of the University of Santo Tomas along España,” he added.
The transparency server is a system that receives electronically transmitted results from polling precincts to the command center.
It is operated by PPCRV and Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas. (PNA) – bny
