Election data visualizations created by the APC student volunteers were made accessible at the NAMFREL official website.
Asia Pacific College (APC), a member of the SM Group, has partnered with the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) to become the analytics partner for the 2025 midterm elections—giving students a powerful opportunity to participate in nation-building through technology and innovation.
In an election that welcomed 1.2 million first-time voters and roughly 1.8 million Gen Z participants, APC students weren’t just observers—they were frontliners in safeguarding democracy. Thirty-one students from the Analytics and AI class and the Junior Philippine Computer Society at APC were tapped to work alongside NAMFREL’s systems team and APC faculty mentors from both academia and industry.
“Our students weren’t just learning—they were contributing to a national cause,” said Rhea-Luz Valbuena, Executive Director of APC’s School of Computing and Information Technologies (SoCIT). “This initiative allowed them to see how technology can protect democratic values, blending ethics, accountability, and public service with their technical expertise.”
Officials from NAMFREL, APC and the student volunteers.
Inside APC’s multi-purpose hall—transformed into a live analytics operations center—students were grouped into five agile teams, each assigned to mission-critical tasks:
- Dashboard Team: Delivered real-time data visualizations for election stakeholders and observers.
- Machine Learning Team: Explored data-driven insights and predictive analytics to identify potential voting trends and anomalies.
- Infrastructure & Website Team: Managed the seamless deployment and reliability of analytics tools.
- Quality Assurance Team: Tested and validated all tools and datasets for accuracy and stability.
- Cybersecurity Team: Monitored for threats and protected the integrity of transmitted election returns.
The live dashboards and analytics developed by the students are now available to the public via elections.org.ph and namfrel-analytics-apc.org, offering a new level of transparency and accountability to the electoral process.
Third-year Computer Science and IT students from the APC Analytics class were organized into five agile teams, each with distinct roles.
This real-time engagement is a hallmark of APC’s Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach—where students go beyond textbooks and simulations to take on real-world problems with tangible impact. Through this partnership, students applied classroom lessons to a live, high-stakes national event—gaining exposure not just to technical tools but also to civic responsibility and ethical leadership.
“APC is proud to reaffirm its commitment to experiential learning. Our students are proving that they’re not just ready for careers in the tech industry—they’re ready to help shape the future of our nation,” Valbuena added.
The collaboration between APC and NAMFREL marks a powerful fusion of youth, technology, and civic engagement—paving the way for a more transparent, accountable, and inclusive electoral process in the Philippines.