|
|
Save for a nameless and now faceless fellow student who came to my rescue, I would have been crushed to death more than 16 years ago. At the time, I was a young, idealistic 17 - and a regular at political rallies and student mobilizations. I’ve long forgotten why we trooped to Malacañang Palace that day. All I remember is that the crowd suddenly pushed and pulled, forcing our small group of Ateneans to break up into little pieces. In a matter of seconds, I found myself in a sea of angry bodies. I would have surely drowned had it not been for this quick-thinking fellow who grabbed my arms and flung our bodies towards the gates. There, he shielded me from the restless mob with his own body. It was over in minutes but it was one of the more frightening moments of my life. When one speaks of activism, instances such as these are just par for the course. Indeed, I was fortunate not to have suffered any injury at the time. Countless, nameless faces have died fighting for causes they truly believed in. As Gerry Kaimo of PLDT.com puts it, “The kind of activism people know means marching in the streets, burning effigies, waving placards - activism is bringing your cause to the people, making yourselves heard, achieving your goal.” But this is the Internet age. And we’d like to believe that all this techno-wizardry has somehow transformed us into more civilized human beings. Indeed, over the last few months, Filipinos saw the blossoming of a new form of revolutionary but utterly bloodless protest, a new way of making their voices heard in the luxury of their own homes, or more often than not, at the safety of their offices. It’s called cyberactivism. “Cyberactivism adds the amazing power of the Internet in the service of the cause. It is regular activism plus the Internet’s ability to inform rapidly, keep people in different places and even time zones organized, plus online creativity and interactivity,” Gerry says. Mark Joseph, cyberactivist and a councilor for the city of Makati, observes, “Cyberactivism in the Philippines has the same dynamics as texting and tsismis (gossip). But it is more truth-based in the sense that people are really exercising their democratic muscle to speak freely about what they believe in and really feel. I love it.” “Technically, it is not Internet-based. Text messaging is most likely the Pinoy’s preferred form of cyberactivism. There’s no spray-painting or shouting involved; all you have to do is forward another Tessie Oreta joke. But it gets the point across. It’s activism based on digital telecommunications,” says Gerry. On the Internet, cyberactivism has taken
on many forms. There are the satirically hard-hitting but info-loaded
sites like PLDT.com, the cyber version of the signature campaign such
as eLagda.com, and the watchdog site which relies on open source journalism
like GIN.ph. Though different in form, stance and voice, these sites are
one in their unspoken vision: to keep the faith. Whether it’s through
hysterically funny jokes, gritty eyewitness accounts or gut-wrenching
pleas, the cyberactivist wants to wake up all those sedentary souls lulled
to sleep by their seemingly comfortable but consumer-driven lives.
Mabuhay ang Pilipino! Pero hindi lahat. Gerry, of course, knows exactly what he’s talking about. His site PLDT.com is one of the first to give meat to the local cyberactivism movement. As every Net-surfing Pinoy knows by now, PLDT.com is a satirical spin-off site of the country’s largest telecommunications provider. Springing from the bones of consumerism, rallying against monopolistic practices, and raging against poor and sometimes non-existent service, PLDT.com was an eye-opener for web surfers. “If you peruse the archives of PLDT.com, you will chance upon the ‘Harvard’ mansion in its early stages of construction. PLDT.com has constantly featured Erap (along with Meldy, a.k.a. La Viuda Loca) since it’s inception. A satire site always needs new material, and Erap and his crony crew (like “Storming Domeng” Siazon, Manny Pangilinan, Lucio Tan) have consistently obliged,” Gerry says. By October 2000, the site started getting a bit more political. It not only covered protest rallies, including that all-important first night at the EDSA shrine, it also linked up with various cause-oriented groups. They were, after all, railing against opponents of monopolistic proportions. By November, PLDT.com hosted the first of a series of Pinoy cyber-rallies and live chats, complete with cyberplacards (images in .GIF or JPEG format that rally participants submitted via e-mail). The response from Pinoy expats was tremendous. After the Chavit Singson expose, Gerry started doing almost daily uploads. It was the first site to feature the full text of the original Singson affidavits. The site also featured Singson’s taped phone conversation through givemetalk.com. As a matter of course, PLDT.com became a gateway for the numerous Erap sites that have mushroomed all over the Internet. Gerry recalls, “The daily addition of anti-Erap sites was an indication to me of the growing frustration of the people against a lousy government. The site became more and more involved in what became the campaign to make Erap Resign or get impeached or ousted. I figured he would never quit so the third option came about. I joined Kompil 2 and the rallies and took photos for Cyberdyaryo and a TV station in Northern California as well as for the site.” As for the ongoing PLDT CoRp. vs. PLDT.com case, Gerry expects to spend a couple more years in court before he sees any resolution. He recounts, “At the most recent hearing, the case took a funny twist when the lawyers for PLDT first announced that PLDT had not brought the cable for the projector, then also announced they had forgotten even the projector. We are looking at spending a few more years in court as PLDT’s delaying tactics take even more bizarre forms.”
The pen is mightier than the sword. The mouse, even more. Though eLagda.com was barely three months old when People Power II erupted, it was ripe for the picking. It did not matter that it miserably failed to reach its target of a million electronic signatures in 21 days. What mattered was that the site, and its corresponding mailing lists, enabled 100,000 subscribers to get behind a common goal - put an end to Estrada’s reign of plunder and kleptocracy. What’s significant about eLagda is that it is a constantly evolving site. Taking off from the online signature campaign, eLagda moderator Enteng Romano then mobilized his subscribers, whom he called eMandirigmas, for organized e-mailing campaigns. These targeted the Senator-Judges at the impeachment trial, with the e-mail messages appealing to the judges’ sense of justice and decency. Eventually, the eMandirigmas were organized into cells for the purpose of launching local programs and mobilizations. Even with Erap out the door, eLagda has no plans of signing off. Its subscribers, filled with encouragement over the turn of events and armed with the knowledge that they can make a difference, are ready for more action. Enteng himself has a better perspective of things. In his EDSA 2 victory message, Enteng writes, “As for me, I did say at the start that I am an apolitical person (I still am). After this experience, I now have a higher appreciation of and respect for cause-oriented groups like Sanlakas and Kompil and their roles in effecting change. With all of the e-mails that I have received, I have seen the good and bad in Filipinos that I have not known before. And I have come to the conclusion that there are enough decent men and women in this country and in Filipino communities all over the world to make a difference.” As of this writing, the site was still under construction but Enteng enumerated several new features. · GMA First 100 Days Scorecard - “This is not meant to be critical of GMA. Since she has publicly advocated consultation with her constituency as a policy, this will help her get instant feedback on her policies and pronouncements in the first 100 days.” · GMA Message Board - “Divided into affirmative and critical sections to allow us to reach her with our email messages. We’ll try to make representations to ask GMA to assign an office that will monitor this message board not only for feedback but for possible action by her office.” · Hall of Fame and Shame - “We made a covenant to campaign against the 11 Senators. We should extend this list to others both on the good and bad side so that people will be guided this coming May elections.” · Convict Erap Monitor - “We
should pursue this to its conclusion.”
The latest entrant to this cyber-movement is GIN.ph or the Guerilla Information Network. Banking on the idea of open source journalism, GIN aims to collect eyewitness accounts, grassroots information, and even rumors from ground zero. That is, from surfers and subscribers themselves. GIN is manned by a phalanx of volunteer “guerillas” who are actually tech-savvy professionals. The guerillas go under such pseudonyms as Kummander Robot, Neveragain, Mr. Morpheus, Private Eye, Juan Walker, St. Ives, Well Fed Revolutionary, The Juggler, Gino Cruz, Rosario Sakay, Mystique Freyalise Uller, Snorlax and Elvis Estrada. Elvis Estrada says, “We wanted to help centralize and disseminate information in one site and provide a venue for people to speak out on issues normally not taken up by the regular broadsheets. Our papers, we felt, did not follow through on their stories. And really, there was an information war and money was used to sway media to the camp of the Administration at that time creating a negative skew on the situation. We wanted to correct that situation, albeit on the Web.” On GIN’s first day on the Web, it was viewed by more than 10,000 people. It helped that the site carried an exclusive story on the illegal drug trade as told by Mary Ong a.k.a. Rosebud. As of day 43, the site has been accessed by more than 120,000 people. Elvis says, “Some of these people were very instrumental forces of EDSA 2 and we’re glad to have become a part of their conscience.” During EDSA 2 indeed, GIN evolved into Web Bandido to help disseminate information not only through the Web but also through text messages. Elvis recounts, “We were all over the place. We had ground forces in the rally. Our central operator just kept plugging away at the latest situationer. We were fast disseminators of information and at times faster than ABS-CBNNews.com or Inquirer.net. It helped that our site can be updated from any place, any time, anywhere in the world. Just like your Hotmail account, you can access it anywhere as long as you can access the Internet. That made our site very dynamic.” Plans are now afoot for the GIN.ph guerillas to launch a foundation called FREE3 or Filipinos for Reform and Empowerment through Education, Entrepreneurship and Electronic Media. FREE3 aims to help Filipinos be more active, informed, progressive and creative in their daily lives through technology. As for GIN.ph, it will eventually spin off into a watchdog site. Elvis adds, “There will be more interactive
features at the site like chat rooms, WAP and text connectivity. Since
there is still a small Internet population in the Philippines, connecting
with texters would be a great way to communicate to a larger segment of
the populace.”
Admittedly, even our resident cyberactivists, who are used to the lightning speed of the Internet, were caught flat-footed by the dramatic turn of events at EDSA 2. Mark says, “I thought that we would have to go through the longer processes leading to democratic change such as impeachment, elections, using our freedoms like speech, press, expression and cyber-war etc. I believe in the goodness of man and I really thought that the Senate would convict Erap once they saw all the evidence. However, the ‘envelopmental’ considerations came in the way of letting the truth come out so I knew it was time to hit the streets again.” And while much has been said about how cyberactivism helped bring about another round of People Power, the movement is still at its infancy. Elvis says, “Yes, it matured in a hurry but we are still at its infancy. There is still so much potential that can be tapped in cyberspace, and we hope that cyberspace can be used for its original purpose - to disseminate information and connect people. Maybe that’s why consumer retail or B2C dot.coms did not prosper because the Internet was built for the purpose of joining people together and not to profit from it.” Gerry chimes in, “You can’t hurry love. PLDT.com took two years to get to this stage! But the Erap incident certainly did its bit to speed up appreciation of the Web and its potential as an alternative medium. Its tolerance of free speech and global reach has made it the tool of choice for today’s guerilla fighter. This certainly did not start in the Philippines, but as a people with many relatives abroad, we Filipinos have seen the Internet take root here and it will likely stay for quite a while.” Mark adds, “I’d like to think that it’s baby steps like these that change the world. Maybe we’ll be seeing this cyberactivism or viral politics permeate all levels of society where politics, tool for change, is needed, like a parent-teacher organization somewhere in Cebu, or in student groups in UP, or farmers in the Cordilleras. Who knows? We can write the rules can’t we?” Yes, we can. However, Elvis puts out a cautionary warning. “Sky’s the limit on the Internet but we must always be on guard. Technology is a double-edged sword, if used in the wrong way, it can create a lot of havoc so we should all have a sense of responsibility in utilizing technology.” Just as the Internet could be used for the good, it could just as easily be used for the bad. Still reeling from the magic of People Power, there were a good number of subscribers on several mailing lists who started ranting and raving about this and that person that pissed them off. A lot of calls were made to boycott certain personalities. After a while, it started sounding like a witch hunt. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. But the real test for local cyberactivism couldn’t have come at a sooner date - and that is, the local elections in May. Gerry says, “The ability of one person to have the power to reach many will definitely foil any regime that seeks to control its people. It is my belief that if used properly the Net will make the coming elections in May a bit more transparent, at least in the areas that have access.” Mark adds, “IT would definitely play a big role in helping people make good selections as to whom to vote for. I hope that it goes to the local election level and not just for the Senate. It is actually the choices that we make at the local level that make a bigger impact in our day-to-day lives. We can safely assume after EDSA 2 that the klutzes of the anti-envelope cult will not be re-elected and that some People Power and God-fearing senators will win. However, we have to look at whether the local government officials that make it reflect the desires and aspirations we have for ourselves.” A lot of groups are expected to put up election-related sites. Whether the Comelec decides to accredit IT groups or not, it would still be possible for cyberactivists to gather data on the election outcome more quickly than ever before. Gerry says, “Just think, anyone with access to a cybercafe can shoot off election results to an online center which can tabulate the results at lightning speed. Sadly, with disappointing announcements from the Comelec about its non-ability to computerize and its rejection of Namfrel, it looks like an uphill climb.” Despite all the foregoing obstacles however, our cyberactivists are still quite optimistic about their target audience, today’s generation of Filipinos. Elvis explains, “I believe that there are two kinds of Filipinos, the informed and the uninformed. A greater majority are uninformed maybe because they do not want to or they are too busy trying to survive, or they do not have access. This is a great challenge for us. It cannot be done overnight but I believe GIN can evolve into a site which people can access and use for reference in the future. We are hoping that the informed Filipinos use GIN, print out the information gathered by GIN and enlighten those that do not have access to the Internet or to text messaging. We are always amazed at the Filipino, just when you thought they were about to be knocked out, a second wind came, revitalized the populace and knocked out Erap!” Gerry says, “EDSA showed the world, and a surprised group of 11 politicians in particular, who the Filipino truly is - one of the smartest, adaptive and civilized peoples in the world. We are all proud of that. However, the same Filipino can forget next week what he/she fought for willingly. We need a sense of urgency, the realization that the country needs to move forward as fast as we can move it, for the sake of our children.” Mark adds, “I knew we had it in us but we had to get over that first lethargy to pick up and go do something for ourselves and not wait for someone else to do it for us. I am especially full of admiration for the late bloomers of this revolution, the youth! From all that angst of what the future may be holding for them, to taking control of their and their country’s destiny, congratulations! I guess if you guys are the product of the Internet age, video gaming and all this IT gobbledygook, more power to you!” As for my hero in the barricades, I never did get his name. But I’m pretty sure that he’s still keeping the faith, and may even have moved his preferred venue of protest from the streets to cyberspace.
|