2016 Elections: Tracking Local Politics

When a respective district is clicked, Rappler’s interactive map displays a representative’s number of terms in office, political party, and position running for in the coming elections. Screengrab from Rappler.com.

CHEERS TO Rappler for collating information regarding the plans for the 2016 elections of the members of the 16^th congress.

In “MAP: Where will members of Congress go in 2016?,” (Jan. 31, 2016) Rappler provided an interactive map in which each legislative district is color-coded, depending on their respective representative’s plans for the upcoming elections.

This revealed that out of the 234 members of the House of Representatives, 146 or more than half are seeking re-election, while 45 are running for other offices and five for national positions. The remaining representatives are not running for any elective post in the upcoming elections. Moreover, the report also looked into the plans of members of Congress whose terms are up and who are at not running for re-election but who have relatives running to replace them.

The map also displays other information, such as each congressman’s number of terms in office and political party, when their respective districts are clicked by the readers.

Rappler’s effort stands out for its use of an interactive map that makes what’s happening at the local level comprehensible to readers.

Similar efforts to cover local politics have also been cheered by CMFR in the past. CMFR noted in October 2015 the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Manila Bulletin’s monitor of local candidates who were up for re-election or were running for other positions (“‘Same old, same old’ in local races”).  Last month, ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol also ran a report on “KampanyaSerye (Campaign Series)” which examined local politics and political clans (“Highlighting Local Politics and Dynasties”).

With most of the media attention focused on national candidates, these efforts to look into the local political scene address the needs of the local electorate for information to help them in making informed decisions in the upcoming elections.