Henrietta de Villa, head of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, inspects a vote-counting machine during the launch of council's command center on May 3. (Photo by Mark Saludes)
A church-backed election watchdog lamented that this year's Philippine election campaigns is the "most terrible" in recent years.
"I'm sad to say that it's only now that we experienced this terrible campaigning," said Henrietta de Villa, head of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and a former Philippine ambassador to the Holy See.
"Never had there been a time when the elections have been subjected to such vicious campaigning," she said.
She said there's a lot of "accusations and character assassinations" that confuse voters.
"It seems that good manners and right conduct don't matter anymore. What is important is to win at all cost," added De Villa.
She said that with the "negative campaigning and rhetoric," the candidates seem to need more education than the voters.
The council has been active in voters' education in Catholic dioceses and parishes around the country for the past two decades.
"Candidates will never change," said De Villa.
"For them winning is the gold. So it depends on the voters to demand from candidates a new way of voting, a new way of campaigning," she added.
The council launched on May 3 its national command center for the May 9 elections. The group has been authorized by the Commission on Elections to hold an unofficial parallel count of the result of the elections.
The organization also has "precinct finder" on its website to help voters locate the polling precincts.