Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting

PPCRV is a national parish-based political but non- partisan lay movement that works assiduously for Clean, Honest, Accurate, Meaningful, and Peaceful elections. PPCRV was born from that joyful shock of recognition that we the laity mattered. That we mattered very much. That was in the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP II) in January 20 to February 17, 1991.

Such gatherings of the Catholic Church hierarchy were previously participated in only by the ordained. But PCP II was different. It invited lay participants, some 145 women and men from various demographic realities.

In PCP II, we heard, we saw, we touched the truth that we are co-responsible for the mission of the Church, of making the Kingdom of God present in our here and now. Bringing heaven on earth especially for the poor, marginalized, and forgotten. That comprising 99.99% of the baptized, the saving work of Christ will not move forward if we the laity don’t move. Another situational reality foisted on us was politics. The way politics is practiced in the Philippines was a major stumbling block to the renewal of Christian life. Not only that, but also to the transformation of society, which was sliding into a dismal state of corruption.

Our hearts were burning within us with our newfound dignity. So we rushed out from PCP II raring to bring about change. His Eminence Jaime L. Cardinal Sin, ever alert to the breath of the Spirit, and Haydee Yorac, feisty advocate of democracy, elections and peace, provided us with the direction and challenge to plunge into politics by way of the forth coming 1992 synchronized national and local elections, the first after the departure of the dictatorship. And so PPCRV came to be. None of us were politicians. None of us owned corporations or huge bank accounts.

None of us were celebrities. But we had faith, faith on fire that if God is with us, who and what can be against us! Riding high on that belief helped PPCRV tremendously in overcoming challenges of Comelec accreditation, funds, materials, and other such logistics. The Church infrastructure proved to be the fastest and most efficient way of cascading programs and mobilizing volunteers. It still is. At times the labyrinth of Church commissions and interlocking functions, not to mention variances in leadership, would be a furnace test for collaboration and communion… fears from within. Struggles and fears which rendered the dying and rising rhythm of Christian life more pronounced, more felt for PPCRV. But during such testing, courage and imagination emerged from PPCRV’s faith base.

In April 2013, PPCRV was accused by the Archbishop of Lipa Ramon Arguelles of being a COMELEC lapdog since the conduct of the 2010 general elections, an allegation that the chairperson of PPCRV, Henrietta T. de Villa, disputes. The organization has been a "citizens arm" of the Commission of Elections since 2010.[1]

In 2010, it had objected to the National Movement for Free Elections' (NAMFREL) application as a citizen's arm of COMELEC, stating that a dual system would interfere with election watch. NAMFREL had never objected to PPCRV's applications as a citizen arm in previous elections.[2] The feud seems to be over as both parties were accredited by COMELEC for the 2013 midterm elections and agreed on their respective functions.[3]