Ex-Comelec commissioner now heads PPCRV

MANILA — The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting has elected former Commission on Elections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento as its new head, the poll watchdog said on Monday.
Sarmiento’s election came during the PPCRV general assembly held in Manila last week. He will succeed outgoing national chair Henrietta de Villa, who headed the organization for 25 years. The 176 general assembly delegates voted Sarmiento to [a] six-year term as head of the PPCRV,” said the group.

Sarmiento’s term will officially start on Nov. 1 and will run until Oct. 31, 2022. This means he will oversee PPCRV operations in the 2019 midterm and 2022 presidential elections.

Chairman-elect Sarmiento is not new to election exercises. His seven-year stint as Comelec commissioner covered both manual and automated election systems,” reads a PPCRV statement.Sarmiento is highly credited for championing the rights and welfare of persons with disability (PWDs) in the electoral process by initiating measures that made registration and polling precincts accessible to PWDs nationwide.The new PPCRV chair is also a member of the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization.PPCRV was established in 1991 with the goal of conducting voters’ education and deploying volunteers to monitor the conduct of elections nationwide.It was co-founded by De Villa, the late Cardinal Jaime Sin, and the late Comelec Commissioner Haydee Yorac.

Since the 2010 polls, the PPCRV has been the citizens’ arm” of the Comelec and performed the unofficial parallel count of the automated election results. (CBCPNews)