How Pinoys used the Internet in the elections

IN THE year 2001, people power brought down another Filipino president. Unlike in the first people power uprising in 1986, however, participants in the second found strength not just in prayers and numbers but in a new form of technology—text messaging.
Hours after the senators cut short the impeachment trial of then President Joseph Estrada, outraged individuals began trickling to the Edsa Shrine, the main scene of the first people power revolt. Armed with mobile phones, the protesters grew in number until they reached hundreds of thousands. Within a few days, Estrada was ousted.
Since then, political and socio-civic groups have become aware of the power of the mobile phone to advance their goals. This new technology was joined by another at least as powerful: the Internet. Together, these tools have made social change not just inevitable but immediate.
In this year’s elections, candidates and party-list groups found the Internet most useful in their campaigns. Not only was it cheaper than printing thousands of posters and flyers or putting ads on television and radio, the Internet also has the farthest reach. It connected even with Filipinos abroad who, with their access to computers, were able to view Philippine election websites. In fact, overseas Filipinos accounted for the biggest number of “hits” in election-related websites.

Angara’s secret weapon
Inquirer.net editor-in-chief JV Rufino observed that in the results of the overseas absentee voting, the senatorial candidates who made it to the Magic 12 were those who put up online advertisements and sites. Edgardo Angara, one of just two administration candidates who made it to the 10 winning slots (the 11th and 12th positions in the senatorial elections have not yet been decided as of press time), invested heavily on web advertisements. Rufino said that Angara’s commercial (which  featured entertainment star Sarah Geronimo) would pop up on the computer screen whenever a visitor opened a site.
Candidates also tapped the networks of Friendster  (http://www.friendster.com), Political Friendster (http://www.political-friendster.com), and Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org) to get to the youth. They posted their pictures, profiles, and even their life stories to inform  Internet users.
Political advertisements, news and interview clips, and personal videos of candidates and party-list groups could also be viewed at YouTube (http://www.youtube.com). Other candidates even did real-time chatting and created online groups for netizens. In one of its reports, GMA-7 showed candidate Francis Escudero “talking” online with young Filipinos and discussing his vision for the country.
Even election watchdogs as well as concerned citizens and groups put up their own sites to promote voters’ education. These sites created venues not only for the candidates’ agenda but also for what citizens could do to promote clean and honest elections.
For example, Philippine Elections 2007 (http://philippine elections2007.wordpress.com) and Philippine Eleksyon 2007 (http://www.halalan-2007.blogspot.com) were initiated by citizens who wanted clean and honest elections. These blogs contained analyses on the election process by ordinary citizens.  They also posted regular updates of the election results and stories from some online news publications.
Pinoy Vote (http://pinoyvote.info) and Halalan 2007 Phil (http://www.halalan2007.ph),  on the other hand, put out the candidates’ profiles and advertisements, and offered links to other voter education sites. Comelec’s Bagong Botante (http://bagongbotante.com) and Y! Power (http://getinvolved.wordpress.com) also gave useful guides and information for new voters.

Portals to information
Another useful web portal was the Philippine Election Monitoring Site (http://ems.fishwink.net). It compiled news from Philippine online media like GMANews.TV, Inquirer.net, abs-cbnnews.com, and Sunstar.com, and entries from Philippine election blogs. It also generated its own election-related reports.
Well-known search engines like Yehey! likewise launched their own election websites. Yehey!’s Votester 2007  site (http://votester.yehey.com) contained a timeline of the election period, profiles, news, results of vote counts by media, the Commission on Elections, and the National Movement for Free Elections.
Meanwhile, media groups launched their special sites or pages for election coverage. Giving minute-by-minute updates, the online press provided coverage in “almost real time,” Carlos Conde, editor of Davao Today, said.
GMANews.TV and Inquirer.net launched their respective Eleksyon 2007 sites while abs-cbnnews.com had its Halalan 2007. These sites made use of the new web tools to educate their readers, and provided fast and factual information.
Aside from providing continuous accounts of election-related developments, the sites of Bulatlat, Davao Today, Newsbreak, and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism offered in-depth stories and a historical background to the elections. Inquirer.net’s Election blog, on the other hand, became the equivalent of the letters to the editor section of the newspapers and a forum for readers to post their analyses and criticisms of issues concerning the elections. – Melanie Y. Pinlac

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