Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10) — Poll watchdog Legal Network for Truthful Elections will be the Commission on Elections’ citizen arm after the National Movement for Free Elections rejected its accreditation by the poll body.

COMELEC Commissioner Luie Tito Guia confirmed this in a media briefing on Friday, but said LENTE accepted the job on the condition that it will be helped by other groups in the conduct of a random manual audit of the midterm elections.

"Ready naman kami and prepared kami [We're ready and we're prepared.] We accepted the task despite the time limitations because we believe the [random manual audit] is a necessary process and it ensures credibility in the election," LENTE executive director Ona Caritos said.

Joining LENTE are volunteers from the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants. It is also open to other groups willing to extend help.

The random manual audit determines whether the automated count under the automated poll system is accurate. This is done through a manual verification of the automated count using randomly selected precincts.

This will take place on May 15 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Manila.

NAMFREL was first to be accredited as the poll body’s citizen arm, but turned this down after the elections commission declined to give it access to voters’ data. The independent poll watcher then warned that the midterm elections could be vulnerable to attacks.

COMELEC Spokesperson James Jimenez told CNN Philippines that NAMFREL'S claim was "a stretch.”

“Just because sila hindi nabigyan, vulnerable na 'yung elections? Samantalang, up to the point na humihingi sila niyan, bahagi sila ng proseso sa paghahanda para sa random manual audit — isang proseso na sinalihan nila nung nakaraang halalan at naging bahagi sila ng paghahanda para doon. So ngayon sasabihin nila, just because hindi nila nakuha 'yung gusto nila, medyo vulnerable na. That's a little unfair, I think,” Jimenez said.

[Translation: Just because they weren't given what they want, the elections are automatically vulnerable? But up to that point, they were involved in the preparations for the random manual audit — a process they were part of during the last elections. And now they will say, just because they didn't get what they want, they say it's vulnerable. That's a little unfair, I think.]

LENTE describes itself on its website as the “first nationwide network of volunteer lawyers, law students and paralegals trained and deployed to monitor elections in the Philippines.”

It advocates electoral reforms and stronger institutional ties among various citizens’ arms and conduct voters’ education programs.

CNN Philippines Correspondent Triciah Terada contributed to this report.