COMMUNITY | PLDT, Smart support PPCRV election command center for 2025 Polls

Telecommunications companies PLDT and Smart have partnered once again with the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) to host the group’s election command center for the 2025 national and local elections.

Located in Sampaloc, Manila, the facility will serve as the central hub for PPCRV’s nationwide operations. The center will help coordinate the efforts of over 450,000 volunteers across the country and support real-time monitoring and transmission audits.

“PLDT and Smart’s alliance with the PPCRV is built on a shared and unwavering commitment to safeguarding the integrity of Philippine elections,” said Blums Pineda, senior vice president and head of Enterprise Business Group at PLDT and Smart. “Equipped with servers, network infrastructure, internet connectivity, mobile devices, and other communication tools, the Command Center enables PPCRV to coordinate the work of over 450,000 volunteers across the country.”

PPCRV, accredited by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), will use the command center to gather and compare pre-transmission printed election returns (ERs) with their digital counterparts sent through the Automated Election System. The process supports the group’s advocacy for clean, honest, accurate, meaningful, and peaceful elections and strengthens its unofficial parallel count. For 2025, that count will now include local races for the first time.

The partnership between the PLDT Group and PPCRV dates back to 1992, a year after the poll watchdog was founded. Since then, PLDT has provided various forms of logistical and technical support, including during the country’s first automated elections in 2010.

Separately, PLDT, through its enterprise arm and data center subsidiary VITRO Inc., has signed an agreement with COMELEC to bolster the transparency and security of the 2025 midterm elections. Two of the three critical server clusters receiving election data will be hosted in VITRO data centers.

COMELEC has also secured SIM cards from the country’s three major telecom providers to ensure the secure electronic transmission of results. Most of those SIMs are from Smart. The election body has tapped the iOne-Ardent joint venture to handle the transmission services.

PLDT and Smart said their involvement supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 16, which focuses on building strong institutions and promoting inclusive, transparent governance.

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