MANILA, Philippines - At the height of the 2007 elections, a group of men torched a voting precinct at the Pinagbayanan Elementary School in Taysan Batangas, burning to death teacher Nelly Banaag and a poll watcher.
Images of the gutted school building which played out on TV lent a grim face to severe brutality we so prevalently see in the country’s election hotspots. ABS-CBN was the first to show pictures of the devastation and perhaps the first on the scene because of a tip from a concerned citizen who heeded the call for vigilance by “Boto Mo Ipatrol Mo” (BMPM) in 2007.
BMPM, a movement pushing for truthful and non-violent elections, was launched anew by ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs in the provinces a year before the 2010 local and national elections. The movement is retrofitted with a culture change campaign “Ako Ang Simula,” which means “change that begins with me”. BMPM: Ako Ang Simula enjoins citizens to be the eyes and voices of change by signing up as a “Boto Patroller” and by reporting election irregularities using mobile phones or the Internet.
August 31, 2009 was a “full circle moment” for BMPM: Ako Ang Simula when it was launched in Batangas, our “pilot” for citizen vigilance in 2007. The children of the late Taysan school teacher Nelly Banaag came forward and signed up with the very movement that brandished their mother’s martyrdom. Cybelle and Ritchelle Banaag felt that by being Boto Patrollers, they can give back to the movement which told of their family tragedy and their continuing pursuit of justice.
The launch in Batangas was a whole day affair at the Lyceum University where Banaag’s daughters were just two of a thousand that signed up as Boto Patrollers. I saw the same “all out support” in similar launches elsewhere in the country in the last five months. In Davao City, Boto Patroller registrations reached 3,500; General Santos, 2,600; Cagayan de Oro, 2,225; Bacolod, 2,143; Baguio, 2,055; Zamboanga 1,300; Dagupan, 1,100; Iloilo, 966; Pampanga, 855; Daet, 545; Naga, 350; Isabela, 328; Lucena, 280; Laoag, 692; Tacloban, 667, and Iligan 4,236. Boto Patroller registrations are a year-round activity in off-site BMPM centers nationwide. Provincial registrants may visit and sign up at ABS-CBN Regional Network Group stations in Laoag, Isabela, Dagupan, Baguio, Pampanga, Batangas, Naga, Legazpi, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu, Tacloban, Cagayan De Oro, Butuan, Iligan, Dipolog, Cotabato, General Santos, Davao and Zamboanga.
Provincial Boto Patrollers may also register online by logging on to www.abs-cbnnews.com or by following the link in http://botomoipatrolmo.multiply.com, or through mobile phones by texting REG(space)BMPM(space)name/age/gender/address to 2366 for Globe, Sun and Bayan, and 231 for Smart and Talk N’ Text.
The sheer number of Boto Patrollers in the provinces only accentuates the need for a tighter watch on the elections in areas far from the view and guard of mainstream Manila. These areas are often deprived of security and other government resources that are supposed to keep the polls cleaner. In fact, it is in the provinces where election fraud is most rampant, where political rivalry can be extreme, and dynasties desperately hang on to power via cash, weapons and connections.
Elections in the provinces are also marred by other irritants, like infighting between government and rebels or bandits, or violence between warring families and tribes.
And there’s very little help.
Peace and order can be as scarce as policemen and soldiers in far flung villages, who can be outnumbered by private armies, if they are not serving as private armies of local politicians already.
The province is also the testing ground for automation, a largely unfamiliar feature of the 2010 polls. Boto Patrollers can help the nation understand the gains (or failure) of the poll automation system in an environment where power and telecommunication infrastructure are wanting, and teacher training, possibly inadequate.
Standing up for change in the provinces takes both fortitude and perhaps patience.
Provincial Boto Patrollers reporting on local election anomalies run the risk of exposing their identities or their families as they evolve in smaller, more intimate communities. They face real threats when the corrupt and the powerful strike back.
Telecommunication facilities in remote villages may also be inadequate to support mobile phones and Internet penetration may not be as deep as in the urban areas. These make reporting all the more challenging.
But based on the overwhelming Boto Patroller registrations in the provinces, I see a different story.
I see people willing to risk, if that’s what it takes to see change. I see people rising above their meager resources or personal limitations to chip in to the costs of clean and peaceful elections, en route to a greater nation.
I see people like Cybelle and Ritchelle Banaag, who say they want to help fight injustice to future victims of election violence — giving a fitting tribute to their mother and countless others who perished in elections past, underlining that they never really died for nothing.