Bloggers mount 'EDSA' revolution online

By Ephraim Aguilar
Southern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 20:41:00 03/02/2008
INQUIRER.net

LEGAZPI CITY -- No time to go to street protests? Do it online.

A two-day “blogswarm” calling for President Macapagal-Arroyo's resignation in time with the 22nd anniversary of the first People Power, was launched by “netizens” calling it “EDSA wave 1.0,” their own modern version of the EDSA revolution.

Bloggers freely posted their calls for Ms. Arroyo to resign on February 24 and 25 but it seemed their posts and readers' comments were likely to become a never-ending hoop.

Some expressed their rage against the corrupt system, others shared their own forms of protest poetry, some ended up name-calling, while others reminded readers of all the issues plaguing the Arroyo administration.

There were those who posted photo-edited images of the President while others hosted online polls and lighted virtual candles.

Blogger Erwin Rafael, 29, a worker for a non-government organization and a teacher, in his site Ang Tambayan ni Paeng on www.akosipaeng.blogspot.com, came up with a new acronym for EDSA: “Electronic Data Swarm Against Arroyo.”

He called on bloggers to EDSA -- “Expand the Democratic Space through cyber-Activism.”

The term “netizen,” which refers to a person actively involved in online communities is short for both “Internet” and “citizen.”

WhatIs.com defines “blogswarm” as a “situation in which thousands of bloggers comment on the same story or news event. It can become the 'hot topic' of the day in both the blogosphere and the mainstream media.”

A blogger on www.bayanikabayan.blogspot.com enumerated 46 issues confronting the Arroyo administration, which for him were enough reasons for Ms Arroyo to step down.

These issues included Ms. Arroyo's alleged involvement in “anti-democracy measures in the light of executive orders like EO 464 and EO 1017, election fraud, North railway project anomalies, media arrests, bribery in Congress, the aborted P329-million National Broadband Network deal scandal, many more.”

Another blog www.pedestrianobserver.blogspot.com catering to “critics of dysfunctional governance” had his own 41 reasons.

Pedestrianobserver noted that the continuing support of Filipinos to the government's “corrupt and evil” system are made, directly or indirectly, through people who are either “paid, employees of the government, relatives and friends of corrupt officials, and beneficiaries of corruption.”

Pedestrianobserver also hosted an online poll, “Do you want Gloria Arroyo to resign or to stay until 2010?”

There were 108 respondents as of Tuesday noon, where 89 percent of them wanted Ms Arroyo to resign, 8 percent wanted her to stay until 2010, while 1 percent voted “not sure.”

More than 200 people as of Tuesday noon from different parts of the world already lighted virtual candles on www.philippineupdate.com/lightacandle.

“Don't just curse the darkness, light a candle!,” the website invited online visitors.

“For those who are unable to join mass actions in the Philippines, light a candle--for integrity in government, the pursuit of unvarnished truth, for prosecution of corrupt officials, for the immediate resignation of leaders who have lost moral ascendancy to govern, for a government that truly represents the interests of the nation, for political and economic development of the Filipino people,” the website added.

The virtual candles looked real with their flames moving in the black background. Participants were entitled to post a 10-word statement below their candles.

Many Filipinos living in other countries like the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, China, Singapore, Canada, Madlives, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, and Greece joined the website.

“May this candle bring a glimmer of hope for the Philippines!” a woman from Switzerland said.

Another from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia posted, “Ipakita ang lakas ng mga bagong bayani ng Bayan [Show the strength of the country’s new heroes],” inviting other overseas Filipino workers to join the online action.

If street activists have effigies, bloggers would post their own photo-edited images of the President.

A humorous cartoon of Ms. Arroyo being swarmed by bees flying out of a computer screen also made rounds on social networking websites in the wake of the EDSA 1 anniversary.

The cartoon, which originated from bayanikabayan, was posted Sunday with the title, “Blogswarmers of our race unite! Gloria resign!”

The Bystander blog on www.sikwati.wordpress.com posted a “Devil Image” of Ms. Arroyo holding a pitch fork.

Sikwati also posted another entry entitled “Starting Them Early” with a photo of a toddler wearing a shirt printed “Moderate your Greed.”

Following the trail, the blogswarm initiative can be traced to a certain jenijenjen.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer was able to get in touch with jenijenjen, who is Jennifer Llarena in real life, 34, a researcher who also calls herself a “private thinktank.”

Llarena, the blogger behind www.jenijenjen.blogspot.com said she first set a blogswarm on February 15 in time for the anti-Arroyo protest in Makati City.

“(The blogswarm) wasn't really a planned event. I just thought of it while I was reading MLQ3's blog so I posted a comment enjoining everyone to write a "Gloria Resign" entry coinciding with the February 15 mass protest action in Ayala. Fellow regulars at MLQ3's blog MBW, Kabayan, and CVJ thought it was a good idea,” Llarena said in her blog.

She even said she had no idea what she was doing was called a “blogswarm” until a fellow blogger told her.

Sparking various discussions on political issues, the blogswarm entries also generated interesting comments from their readers while bloggers exchanged links of blogs with socio-political content.

Gremil Alessandro Naz, a communication professor from Bicol University currently taking graduate studies in New York University, said the Internet, as a medium for advocacy in the Philippines, had yet to gain enough momentum in the country.

"Advocacies carried through the worldwide web will not be as powerful unless many Filipinos already have access to computers and the internet," Naz said.

Llarena, however, said she never really thought of the impact her blogs might have.

“I wasn't really thinking that my blogswarm was going to be like a big hit or anything. Or that it will produce any great results. If it does, then great. If it doesn't, then fine. The important thing is that I took a stand,” Llarena said in one of her posts.

In an interview over Yahoo Messenger, Llarena said if she also had time, she would go to the streets to fight for what she thought was right and to condemn what she thought was wrong.

“I write research papers so I'm usually at home when I'm not doing field work and when I'm not in meetings. While writing, I usually go online. (Blogging) has become my own way of protest,” she said.

Indeed, the Internet is a freeman's world. It is where rallies cannot be dispersed by water cannons and where protesters cannot be easily gagged. It is where lit candles will never run out of flame. It defies time and space.