'Patrollers' send their Cory moments, thoughts on SONA

MANILA, Philippines - WE heard knocks on our doors and they were coming from students who were clamoring not for concerts or cell phone loads — but for opportunity to be registered voters and the chance to learn how they can participate more actively in the elections of 2010.

How do you say ‘No’ to that?

Thus, on August 19, 2009, Boto Mo, i-Patrol Mo: Ako ang Simula conducted another round of Boto Patroller registrations.

Boto Mo, i-Patrol Mo is ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs’ stab at encouraging citizens to be vanguards of democratic processes such as elections. ABS Senior Vice President Maria Ressa, also ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) managing director, likes saying the movement has for its core participatory democracy through technology. In various speeches, Ressa would explain how people could be ‘citizen journalists’ — a relatively new concept in the Philippines which has taken on the form of citizens partnering with professional journalists to pursue a story and present it to the nation and to the world. Ressa would enjoin people to snap a photo, record a video, or leave a voice message to ABS-CBN of things and events in their communities they think the nation and the world should know about. “Use us as your megaphone,” Ressa would say.

In Boto Mo, i-Patrol Mo movement’s experience so far, people have welcomed the opportunity to be citizen journalists and to take active role in developing stories. ABS-CBN’s army of journalists take the cue from citizens’ tips and the editors their submissions. This partnership has so far resulted in news stories that resonated with communities, and which carried the perspective and context that seasoned reporters provide.

“People were responding to calls for content submissions, talking to us, the media, and stoking a wider conversation within and among their communities,” said ABS-CBN Newsgathering Head Charie Villa.

In July, members of the Boto Mo, i-Patrol Mo movement called ‘Boto Patrollers’, sent to ABCBN pictures and videos of what they thought was the real state of the nation as they see it in their communities. These submissions were checked and incorporated into ABS-CBN’s news coverage in the week running up to the last State of the Nation Address July 27 of President Gloria Arroyo.

On August 1, hours after former President Cory Aquino succumbed to colon cancer August 1, ABS-CBN called on Boto Patrollers to send their ‘Cory moments’ — photos and videos they, the citizens, had of themselves and Aquino. The call generated at least a thousand pictures and videos sent through e-mail and texts, and made for vignettes in news programs and in ABS-maintained websites that allowed citizens to pay their last respects to Aquino.

On August 19, Umagang Kay Ganda, ABS-CBN’s morning program, was aired live from the University of Santo Tomas, along Espana in Manila. In the sidelines was a workshop for about 100 students, handled by ANC Chief Operating Officer Glenda Gloria. In about an hour, she explained to UST students what the Boto Patroller movement is, what this movement’s members should be patrolling, how they should be patrolling, and how they should get in touch with ABS-CBN to submit their reports.

Within the same morning, at an auditorium in San Beda, in Mendiola, Manila, Ressa and Villa were talking to students about the exact same thing.

In UST, as well as in San Beda, Boto Patroller registration was accompanied by a list-up for voters by the Commission on Elections (Comelec). Together with similar set-ups in the Quezon City Memorial Circle, ABS stations in Cebu City, Dagupan City and Zamboanga City, hundreds of new voters — many of them first-timers — were able register as voters with the Comelec.

The August 19 Boto Mo, i-Patrol Mo registrations mirrored three other sets of activities since May 11 when the movement was launched, symbolically starting the year-long countdown to the next national elections.

The Boto Patroller movement has, so far, swelled into at least 25,000 with the latest Boto Patroller registration, said Arlene Burgos, of the ABS-CBN BMPM team. This is an amazing number, considering what the Boto Patroller movement encourages is for its members to take on an active role patrolling elections, she said. “This means people know that, when they sign up to be Boto Patrollers, they are committing to a promise to be vigilant, and to guard democratic processes in their communities, and to tell the world about any wrongdoing through ABS.”

Boto Mo, i-Patrol Mo continues to get numerous invitations to hold Boto Patroller registrations and to conduct citizen journalism workshops across the country. People who send these invitations through e-mails and texts do not ask for much. They just want opportunity to be registered voters and the chance to learn how they can participate more actively in the elections of 2010. How do you say ‘No’ to that?