TELECOM | PLDT, VITRO support BARMM elections with connectivity, data centers
The arrangement builds on PLDT’s partnership with the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which began in 2016 when the agency shifted to electronic counting machines and was strengthened during the 2025 midterm elections.
The first regular Parliamentary Elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), scheduled for Sept. 14, will receive connectivity and digital infrastructure support from PLDT Inc. and VITRO.
PLDT, in cooperation with the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), is providing connectivity and digital infrastructure for election-related operations. Its VITRO data centers will house critical servers that will receive data transmitted directly from automated counting machines.
The arrangement builds on PLDT’s partnership with the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which began in 2016 when the agency shifted to electronic counting machines and was strengthened during the 2025 midterm elections.
PLDT is also providing connectivity for the PPCRV Command Center at AMA and distributing prepaid SIMs to support election coordination and monitoring.
“Reliable connectivity and secure digital infrastructure play a crucial role in enabling transparent and credible elections. As the Bangsamoro Region prepares for this historic electoral exercise, PLDT is honored to support Comelec, PPCRV and other election stakeholders in helping strengthen public trust in the electoral process,” said PLDT Chief Operating Officer Menardo G. Jimenez Jr.
VITRO data centers are equipped with physical security measures and are engineered to withstand earthquakes of up to Intensity 8. The facilities also have redundant generators and uninterruptible power supply systems designed to maintain operations during commercial power outages.
VITRO facilities are designed to provide service-level agreements of up to 99.99% uptime, according to PLDT.
“Serving the Filipino people means safeguarding the sanctity of every vote. Through VITRO’s secure and mission-critical data center infrastructure, we are committed to protecting the integrity of election data entrusted to us. We are honored to once again support the Commission on Elections and iONE in strengthening our democratic process, this time through the landmark BARMM Parliamentary Elections,” said Victor S. Genuino, president and CEO of ePLDT and VITRO REIT Inc.
The BARMM elections have been described by the government as a milestone in implementing the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and the region’s democratic transition.
The initiative builds on PLDT’s support for election modernization through its network infrastructure, connectivity services and data center capabilities.
PLDT also cited its support for the Bayanihan SIM Program, which provides free SIMs with mobile data to Filipinos in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.
PLDT and Smart recently received the “Bayani sa Last Mile” award from the Department of Information and Communications Technology for their role in supporting digital transformation and countryside development.
The PLDT Group said its collaboration with government and civil society organizations also supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 16 on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and SDG 9 on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
Corrections made: Tightened the lead and removed unnecessary corporate framing; clarified PLDT and VITRO’s respective roles; changed “earthquakes up to Intensity 8” to “earthquakes of up to Intensity 8” for grammatical precision; standardized “service-level agreements”; removed repetitive references to digital transformation; retained the source’s substantive quotes verbatim; and maintained a neutral, straight-news structure.
Full disclosure: All news articles published on the TechSabado website are written by human journalists, unless otherwise specified. Final text editing is also performed by human editors, with artificial intelligence (AI) used only to assist with additional grammar and style guide corrections..
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