Interactive technology as a campaign juggernaut

(Conclusion) Tracing the future through technology

According to an investment survey completed in June last year, Internet penetration can loosely be established at somewhere between 740,000 and 1.85 million local users, with estimates easily reaching 3.45 million by 2004 at a growth rate of 3-5 percent per month.

In December 1999, National Telecommunications Commission’s records showed there were some 200 registered Internet service providers (ISPs), although only 20 were considered first-tier entities servicing a fragmented market of some 200,000 subscribers. With each subscriber allowed two to five e-mail addresses, the number of users was determined at somewhere between 400,000 and one million.

Considering that about two million households are located in Manila with an equal number of both transient and resident university students logging on to the Internet from an average of 15 hours every month, these numbers are all too effortlessly inflatable. Included in this user base are large multinational enterprises’ use of leased dedicated access lines that are used for Internet access, corporate communication and B2B commerce.

These user statistics take into consideration the existence of broadband Internet access through 1,000 nationwide and provincial cable operators. However, with more than a million cable TV subscribers, only a high-born few can afford the cable modem access that connects to the World Wide Web at a souped-up speed of 1 megabyte-per-second or 20 times faster than an ordinary 56 kilobytes-per-second phone dial-up connection. Yet, traffic is building as more and more cable modem users log on.

Real estate conglomerates have already begun developing infrastructure direct subscriber lines (DSL) for high-speed, always-on Internet access, connecting from a local exchange and extending over a three-kilometer perimeter. While even broader multichannel, multipoint distribution service (MMDS) has met with prohibitive costs of investment (only a few companies have launched this technology in key cities in the US) and sluggish resistance in the legislative arena, many companies have bought into the idea that fixed wireless broadband access is the wave of the future.

While existing wireless network technology has been very limited with extremely slow data transmission at 9 kbps and applications and primarily used for short messaging services (SMS), cellular equipment manufacturers are pumping up their product rollouts with transmission speeds of 156 kbps.

The idea of being able to go to a remote café, bistro, bookstore on the outskirts of Manila or in any other key cities such as Cebu and Davao or not even having to go anywhere to access the Internet through a WAP-enabled cellular handset with built-in, high-speed general packet radio service (GPRS) connections, is potent. By the end of this year, one of the major cellular operators in the country will have racked up 50,000 subscribers on its client list.

What does this all mean for Philippine demographics in general and political culture in specific terms? With more and more Filipinos embracing the real-time conveniences that wireless GSM technology has to offer, cellular operators have mapped out a seven-million mobile phone user base that is seen to grow to 10 million by the year 2004. Even the most self-denying, computer troglodyte will somehow have to stand up to a handset (or a less intimidating computer screen) and practice some nimble thumb action.

Shaping politics through the Internet

Albert Lim is a political animal by nature and entrepreneur by action. He was just having his typical spike of caffeine at Starbucks one day last year when it occurred to him that he was fed up with our stupefying political culture. He had worked as chief of staff to three congressmen, been a fellow at the House of Representatives, authored a bill, co-founded the Sanggunian Journal (http://www.sanggunian.com), serving as its editor-in-chief, and doled out political advice on a professional basis. Still, he was dissatisfied with how many citizens had been bamboozled into accepting elected officials without a viable inkling of how they made it to the offices that they occupy or the positions of authority they hold.

Going by the motto "Because simply voting is just not good enough" and facing politicians’ classic run-and-gun offensive with no specific platform of issues except for clichéd blandishments such as pro-poor or anti-graft, the democratic process is sadly wanting. Uninformed, misinformed and a generally cynical public has helped render voter turnout at abysmally low levels.

The 1998 elections was said to have 35 million voters going to the polls – less than half of the total population. While the present administration effectively obtruded the self-imposed responsibility of "saving the poorer majority of citizens from themselves," it technically owes its ascendancy to an even tinier fraction of the voting public. A decisive ballot vote was instead replaced by full-length television broadcasting, a 300,000-strong presence at EDSA, and a 100,000-strong chain petition generated by eLagda.com (http://www.elagda.com). The cyber-activism threatened legislators with no-votes of confidence lest they chose to ignore the petition to ask the popularly-elected president to resign.

Lim and a friend, Anthony Te, decided to pool their personal funds, take on some limited borrowing, and build a website that tries "to bring Philippine elections to a higher plane by educating people about what they need to know before and during the campaign period: get to know more about those seeking their votes, participate in our VoterSpeak discussion forum so that they become articulate enough to discuss issues and hopefully make those issues known to candidates, and insist that they become campaign issues. Candidates may also participate in the forum and interact with prospective voters."

Halalan2001.com’s (http://www.Halalan2001.com) cyber-campaigning in action is probably one of the most important websites that young voting Filipinos (ages 18-35) interested in the circuitous course that Philippine politics takes, can access. Conversely, it should also be one of the highest priorities on the list of campaign expenditures for political candidates or their parties. (Yes, the site charges the candidates, their political parties or political contributors, for the listings they make and duly publishes who gave what to whom. The voting public would then benefit from a unified directory of all such contestants.)

Through Lim’s website, we find out that "there are more than 17,000 positions at stake with four vying for each position at most ...under the law, whatever the candidates/parties pay for is called campaign expenditure, while those paid by contributors are called contributions. Any expenditure is deducted from the candidate’s/party’s maximum legal limit in total campaign expenses; contributions are not deducted, although under the new tenets of Republic Act 9006, prior written acceptance from the candidate is a mandatory requirement for contributions to become legal."

While we are aware that most political candidates generally do not like to declare their actual campaign expenses and contributors are just as reluctant to disclose which horse they betted on (at least, until the race is won), their silence was perpetuated by RA 6646 or the Political Ad Ban Act that prohibited buying and receiving free mass media spots.

Halalan2001.com has compiled a library of related legislative rulings and amendments to the Omnibus Election Code, including the latest act passed "to enhance the holding of free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible elections through fair election practices," virtually lifting the ad ban. Section 13 of RA 7166 delineates that candidates may spend "...P3 for every voter currently registered in the constituency where he filed his certificate of candidacy...a political party P5 for every voter currently registered in the constituency or constituencies where it has official candidates."

Lim explains that by creating a profile-based website, Halalan2001.com presents a viable means of exposure for senatorial candidates who would otherwise have to visit 99 cities within a 90-day campaign period. They will be able to present their track record and campaign positions, get to know and respond directly to their constituents. Marketing gurus could only consider that kind of exposure 24-7, in-your-face advertising until the May elections.

After that, the site will be transformed into an election research-voter education format until the next electoral exercise. "By doing so, we raise the consciousness of our voters and sustain their enthusiasm and interest in government. This, we hope, will slowly but surely contribute to the awakening of a politically mature, issue-sensitive and actively involved citizenry."

For Web-surfing junkies, the Internet has just added another load of content that they can sink their teeth into for a good cause – news and interactive education in Philippine politics. This hoists a loftier purpose on the cellphone-carrying crowds whose fevered prehensile action may soon cool off.