Around half a million people have volunteered to work with the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) on Election Day next week.

PPCRV national chairperson Myla Villanueva said the bulk of the volunteers will serve as poll watchers and voter’s assistance desk staff in various dioceses across the country.

“It is important for us to be present in the precincts to be witnesses of the truth, whatever that may be,” Villanueva said. “Let us be there to be witnesses of truth.”

The PPCRV head made the statement during a recent meeting with the volunteers of the Lipa Archdiocesan Council for Electoral Reforms (LACER).

The other volunteers, according to her, will be assigned at the PPCRV Command Center for its unofficial parallel count at the University of Sto. Tomas in Manila from May 9 to 20.

She said the volunteers will serve as encoders, manpower for their call center, ushers and other functions to help in efficient operations.

The command center is where the poll watchdog receives in their transparency server the electronic results of the elections.

As the accredited citizens arm of the Commission on Elections, one of PPCRV’s tasks is to ensure that the data in the hard copy matches those in the electronic election return.

While they will work closely with the Comelec, Villanueva said they will continue to uphold its mission to ensure credible and honest elections.

“So we will trust but we will also verify,” she added.