Banking on text messaging as a reliable and quick communications tool for reporting, the newly-formed Workers Election Watch (WE Watch) on Monday announced cellphone numbers where workers and other citizens could send reports of acts of election fraud.
WE Watch convenors led by the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research Inc. (EILER) said the text hotlines are:
- 0929-3361581 (Smart)
- 0915-6701434 (Globe)
- 0923-5320142 (Sun)
WE Watch will train worker-volunteers to act as pollwatchers and rapporteurs who would monitor the elections and relay reports via text messaging.
The reports would be stored and collated in a central databank and would be used, among others, to formulate policy recommendations on the automated election system.
WE Watch volunteers come from labor unions across the country and from the pharmaceutical, banking, and communications industries, as well as advocates from the formal and informal sectors.
WE Watch aims to cover the following vote-rich areas which also have high concentrations of workers: Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Metro Baguio, Subic (Olongapo City), Cavite City, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon, Bacolod City, and Iloilo City.
The project is in cooperation with the Legal Network for Truthful Election (Lente) and supported by the European Commission’s delegation to the Philippines.