Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo empowers people

MANILA, Philippines – I have a cell phone. I will take a picture or video of something that inspires hope, or illustrates wrongdoing. I will change the world.

With this working principle, the Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo (BMPM) project of the ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs Department gets to high gear this month.

BMPM, which currently has more than 13,000 registered members, is ABS-CBN’s stab at encouraging Filipinos to participate in democracy’s most potent tool: The election of our national and local leaders.

First introduced in the run up to the 2007 elections, BMPM was able to mobilize Filipinos, using their mobile phones, to take pictures and videos of snippets of what they thought was going wrong in the election in their barangays and provinces. They then sent these to ABS-CBN.

Messages sent to ABS-CBN ranged from 500 a day leading up to elections and one every minute on election day. After checking the reports for accuracy, ABS-CBN aired these citizen reports on various platforms — TV Patrol, Bandila, Umagang Kay Ganda, ANC, DZMM and published them on www.abs-cbnnews.com.

Today and tomorrow, July 10, ABS-CBN will hold its first of a series of Patrollers Workshops in General Santos and Davao City — key areas in Mindanao where the bulk of the BMPM registrants come from. The workshops are half-day affairs gathering Boto Patrollers — the BMPM registered members — in a public place for free workshops on citizen journalism and civic involvement in elections.

The BMPM project in 2007 was recognized by local and international bodies. It won the Gold Quill Award of Excellence from US-based IABC, the International Association of Business Communicators. IABC called Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo an “effective campaign with a modest budget... with thoughtful use of strategic partners — all based on a bold, honorable mission.”

Maria Ressa, head of news of ABS-CBN, said citizen journalism — the idea that ordinary citizens have stories to share with the world about their communities — powered by the new tools of technology, lies at the heart of BMPM.

“We took the traditional power of broadcast media, cable and combined it with new media — the Internet and mobile technology — to create the first instance globally where a news organization called on citizen journalists to come together for a very active, political purpose — to patrol their votes and push for clean elections,” Ressa said during the launch of the BMPM: Ako ang Simula last May, exactly one year before the 2010 elections.

BMPM: Ako ang Simula raises the level of participation of patrollers this year as ABS-CBN integrates social networking sites like Multiply and Facebook with cell phones and e-mails as venues where Boto Patrollers can submit their reports.

“In one day, thousands of people line up in the hot sun, waiting for hours to register to vote and become Boto Patrollers — citizens who promise to use new media and their cell phones for change... The enthusiasm and the thirst for new ways of doing things was palpable,” Ressa said in describing a BMPM registration campaign on June 11, the eve of the Philippine Independence Day.

Details of the BMPM: Ako ang Simula may be viewed at the www.abs-cbnnews.com.