Boto Mo iPatrol Mo: Driving our way to more meaningful democracy

MANILA, Philippines - Our day started with a 50-seater bus motoring its way onto the Polytechnic University of the Philippines campus in Santa Mesa, Manila yesterday.

The bus carried ABS-CBN’s Umagang Kay Ganda show hosts onto the grounds of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Manila. Its entry was a symbolic commitment to the cause of Boto Mo iPatrol Mo: Ako ang Simula, the network’s campaign calling on the people to guard their votes by actively patrolling elections and election-related events. At the core of the campaign is citizen journalism — the principle that communities have their stories to tell, and they can partner with professional journalists to tell the world about it.

ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs Senior Vice President and ANC Managing Director Maria Ressa sums it up in three words: empowerment through technology — because Boto Mo iPatrol Mo allows citizens to text, email, phone in their “reports” or first hand accounts of incidents in their communities that they think their fellow citizens should know about. These reports are vetted by journalists, and if newsworthy are taken in as part of the news coverage of ABS.

Live from PUP yesterday morning, Umagang Kay Ganda opened with its anchors Atom Araullo, Kim Atienza, Ginger Conejero, Winnie Cordero, Rica Peralejo, Alex Santos, Bernadette Sembrano, Anthony Taberna and Pinky Webb walking out of the Boto Mo, i-Patrol Mo bus, officially opening another round of Boto Mo iPatrol Mo registration for would-be Boto Patrollers.

At least 2,000 people — mostly students — showed up as audience of the show yesterday, said Umagang Kay Ganda executive producer Cheryl Favila. By Boto Mo iPatrol Mo registration standards, roughly the same number of people would enlist themselves to be Patrollers, according to Boto Mo iPatrol Mo Project Lead Arlene Burgos.

In Bacolod City, Baguio City and Cagayan de Oro, a similar thing was happening yesterday. A total of at least 3,000 people appeared in the three areas to register and be Boto Patrollers. And this was just the official launching of the Boto Mo iPatrol Mo campaign in these areas. After the campaign is launched in an area, membership numbers usually increase exponentially as citizens start seeing Patroller reports on TV.

The campaign, in fact, has a total of 15,546 registered members since it was launched May 11, exactly a year before the national elections. This membership consists mostly of young adults either still in college or are young professionals. Most have cell phones or e-mail addresses, and would use these to communicate or file reports.

For the latest theme-based “assignment” for Boto Mo iPatrol Mo, Patrollers filed hundreds of photos, videos and summaries of stories from their communities, and another batch of comments ran to hundreds in Multiply, and through direct e-mails to the abs-cbnnews.com. Patrollers were asked to give their own “Sona” or State of the Nation Address — their version of the state of the Philippines as they see it according to the realities they were witnessing in their communities.

They sent these to ABS-CBN mostly through e-mails and SMS. The best of these submissions were used in the network’s news programs in all its platforms between July 20 to 26 — the week running up to President Arroyo’s delivery of her Sona July 27 at Congress.

The Boto Mo, i-Patrol Mo bus has yet to reach Bacolod, Baguio or Cagayan de Oro, but much campaigning has been done in seeding many areas with the idea of people empowerment through technology and the media.

Ressa said the bus will hop from one community to another, bringing with it the message of empowerment. She explained: “Campaign buses — in the US, for example — have always represented political candidates’ attempts to reach out to people. These candidates — presidentiables — go around the States in buses, trying to campaign for their platforms of government and plans to the people, the voters. In the Philippines, we will have the Boto Mo iPatrol Mo: Ako ang Simula bus. It will hop from one community to another, taking with it its battlecry of reforms in democratic processes, especially elections, encouraging people to patrol elections in their communities, and to share their experience with the rest of the country through ABS-CBN. This, citizens can do using their cell phone or their e-mail to send reports under the Boto Mo iPatrol Mo campaign.”

Last July 9 and 10, Ressa, ANC chief operating officer Glenda M. Gloria, and newsgathering head Charie Villa conducted workshops in General Santos and Davao cities to teach Patrollers how to take and send photo and video reports so they can incorporate these into news accounts. The three ABS officials said they hope this sparks realization of what power citizens have in their hands.