Common dream of an empowered citizenry galvanizing BMPM and partners

MANILA, Philippines - The shared experience of war creates an almost unexplainable bond among people who go through them. Fighting side by side with another person creates a kind of kinship that will be difficult to explain to people who did not fight for the same cause.

If May 10, 2010 is a “war”, then Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo: Ako ang Simula (BMPM) was a soldier in the battlefield a year ahead of many others, in the company of other soldiers who were fighting for the same cause.

Almost a year since BMPM’s launch on May 2009 with the tagline “Ako ang Simula,” ABS-CBN’s election-based citizen journalism campaign has been attracting top media companies, academic institutions, and cause-oriented groups to join its battlecry for change through a more democracy-vigilant citizenry.

A year ahead of the national elections, ABS-CBN leaders signed a manifesto with communication and education industry giants, non-profit organizations, and election watchdogs for a year-long campaign that calls on Filipinos, especially the youth, to get involved by registering as voters and closely watching preparations for the 2010 race.

ABS-CBN partnered with Globe Telecom Inc., STI Colleges and Education Centers, Bayan Telecommunications Inc., Universal Motors Corp., The Philippine STAR, BusinessWorld, Pulse Asia, University of the Philippines School of Economics, Youth Vote Philippines, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, the National Movement for Free Elections and the Commission on Elections.

Also among ABS-CBN partners are Jollibee, the Life Haven-Philippines, Inc. consisting of people with disabilities who wanted more active role in patrolling elections; Google and Map Central who have helped ABS-CBN with maps to provide the people a visual representation of how election preparations are unfolding; Regional Emergency Assistance Communications Team-Philippines, the country‘s biggest radio communications group whose members have signed up en masse to be Boto Patrollers; and Kontra Daya, a broad campaign of various organizations and individuals committed to guard against fraud and the failure of elections.

“Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo” started in 2007 and empowered citizens to patrol their votes by reporting election-related anomalies using their mobile phones. Its huge success didn’t only spark citizen participation, it also enabled ABS-CBN to document illegal election practices all over the country.

Over the last 12 months, ABS-CBN took the campaign a step further as it mobilized its multi-platform structure — television, cable, radio, Internet, and mobile phones — to empower the people to make the 2010 elections work. Boto Patrollers took it upon themselves to document and capture through their cell phones and digital cameras deaths, disasters, campaign and election violations. Patrollers’ reports spoke out loudly as ABS-CBN picked up these reports and conveyed these to authorities and the public who expected action and resolution of reported issues.  

There were 12 BMPM Days during which ABS-CBN brought up-to-date news updates on three different live points where voter registration was mounted, and organized election-related activities such as Leadership Forums aired on ANC, alongside online polls and other real-time interactions through the Internet.

The activities were successful and it was in no small part due to the cooperation and dedication of ABS-CBN’s partners, whose men and women were side-by-side with BMPM in preparing and launching voter registration and voter education campaigns, information drives, Boto Patroller assemblies, among other activities, all over the country — all for the shared objective of helping out where each one could in ensuring peaceful and credible May 10, 2010 elections.

Along the way, ABS-CBN and its partners saw how the full year of preparations for next month’s elections built confidence among Boto Patrollers and citizens in general on the feasibility of change, and on the possibility of collective peaceful action pushing this change. What comes next is the hope that come Election Day, all the hard work will yield a voting population confident of its power to be the change it wants to be, a citizenry carrying the conviction that change begins nowhere but in itself.

After all is said and done, and once the dust settles down, we shall all again sit down, then trade stories on how this war was won.