The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) continues to receive and process votes at this time as part of its ongoing unofficial parallel count.
As reported by RHTV’s Rose Babiera, the PPCRV has received 79.90% of election data so far. The data from the transparency server shows a strong consistency with the numbers officially released by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC).
Nonetheless, the organization faced notable difficulties in delivering its unofficial parallel vote count.
There was no recorded progress in the data shared by the PPCRV with the media earlier. By 6:00 a.m., the numbers displayed at its command center were still reflecting the 12:01 a.m. data.
Moreover, the PPCRV’s figures appeared higher compared to the data released by the COMELEC and several media servers during that period.
However, PPCRV spokesperson Ana de Villa–Singson explained that the mismatch in the data may have been caused by double counting.
Atty. Rejie Jularbal, legal counsel of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), gave a similar explanation. In an interview on DZRH’s Dos Por Dos, he said the media server also received a duplicate file.
Once this was identified, the tally had to be adjusted, as the numbers initially appeared to reflect vote manipulation.
“May duplicate file na noong in-audit is natanggal. Ibig sabihin noong una, noong umabot ng 26 million, may duplicate," said Jularbal.
The servers and the PPCRV receive data from encrypted files generated by Automated Counting Machines (ACMs) at the precinct level. These files undergo a decryption process before the data can be read and processed.
Atty. Jularbal explained that the discrepancy may have occurred during this stage of the process. However, he noted that this was distinct from the initial release of election results the previous night.
In addition to delays in receiving data, the PPCRV also faced setbacks in processing them. Notably, the COMELEC had already transmitted one-third of the total votes—a significant portion for the initial wave of transmission.
However, the PPCRV did not immediately gain access to the said data. Singson explained that only the header was visible on their server, a situation deemed unusual. This prompted the organization to immediately express concern.
"34.38% has already been transmitted. The sad news is that we have not had access to any of that data. So, it is of concern to us. We have been in constant touch with COMELEC. We have not yet received a response," said Singson.
The delays caused the PPCRV to miss its expected timetable. Furthermore, it was only at 10:00 p.m. that the election watchdog received its first physical copy of the election returns, which came from the Archdiocese of Cubao.
Adverse weather conditions, however, are being cited as the reason why precincts are having difficulty sending the ERs to the PPCRV’s command center.
The COMELEC, in its response, assured that there were no anomalies associated with the delays.
According to COMELEC Chairman George Garcia, both the COMELEC and the PPCRV rely on a single data source. However, he did not provide an explanation for why the data was not immediately accessible to the PPCRV.
