Mindanaotoday.com | NAMFREL CdeO-MisOr chapter, Smart team up for clean and fair elections on May 9
NAMFREL, an accredited citizens’ arm of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), is a non-partisan movement that promotes clean, honest, and fair elections. Aside from mobilizing volunteers to oversee poll precincts, they also launched the NAMFREL app for voters.
Nestor Banuag, Jr., NAMFREL Coordinator for CDO-MisOr, shared, “Our local chapter needs the fastest means of communication to send reports, whether through phone calls, SMS, Messenger, or email. Smart’s wide network reach will be a huge help for our field volunteers. This is our fourth time to partner with Smart, and we are very grateful for this generous assistance. Daghang salamat!”
Under the partnership, Smart has provided connectivity support and load assistance for the poll watchdog’s volunteers. Smart has also helped produce NAMFREL’s “Bantay ng Bayan” publicity materials that will be placed in poll precincts.
“Giving the volunteers access to Smart’s fastest and widest network helps them monitor activities related to the elections. With Smart mobile data, the volunteers can also use the NAMFREL app to report poll-related incidents in real time. We have partnered with NAMFREL CDO & Misamis Oriental for several years now, and we fully support their efforts for clean and honest elections,” said Judee Caroline Chaves, Corporate Communications Manager for Smart.
Smart’s partnership with NAMFREL is part of its commitment to help the country attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals particularly UNSDG 16, which calls for strong institutions.