ABS-CBN launches Voter Education Campaign

ABS-CBN Broadcasting has seriously taken its creed of being of Service to Filipinos to heart when it launched its multi-media campaign to espouse voter responsibility last April 2 on its flagship news program, TV Patrol. The campaign revolves around the "Vote for Me" catchphrase referring to a child’s plea to remember that you are actually voting for the future of Filipino children. Simultaneous with the announcement on TV Patrol is the unveiling of a giant billboard featuring the campaign along Sgt. Esguerra Ave. in the ABS-CBN compound.

The network has been running teasers saying, May susuportahan ang ABS-CBN sa eleksyon. . . and it was finally revealed that it is the Filipino child the network will be campaigning for.

Over the next few weeks until the May 14 elections, ABS-CBN will be actively promoting this campaign to support, not actual candidates, but the future of Filipino children. Activities lined-up for this major nationwide ABS-CBN effort include participation by all its entertainment and news programs, airing of TV and radio plugs, involvement of all regional broadcast centers, a Halalan 2001 site on ABS-CBN.com, print publicity, and campaign sorties in barangays featuring ABS-CBN talents. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has endorsed this project when she guested in a special episode of Dolphy’s Home Along Da Riles to promote voter responsibility.

ABS-CBN’s voter education drive will be undertaken in four phases each involving a specific topic. First to be discussed will be "Looking Beyond One’s Family" which aims to make voters aware that we should not only vote for our children but also for the Filipino youth. The next voter education topic is to Think Long Term which will tackle the fact that who we vote will govern for at least four years.

On the third phase of the project, ABS-CBN will mobilize its "campaign machinery" to make people aware of Filipinos’ "Obligation and Right to Vote." If we decide not to exercise our rights to vote, we are not showing concern for our children’s for they will be the ones who will be most affected. The last topic to be campaign for will be "Awareness of our Rights."

The Vote for Me campaign will culminate in a miting de avance TV special, a collaboration between the Entertainment and News & Current Affairs divisions of ABS-CBN that will then segue to the extensive coverage of the polls by its News & Current Affairs group dubbed Halalan 2001.