February 01, 2001, 1:04 PM — Advances in information and communication technology create both peril and opportunity, said Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her inaugural address two weeks ago. The peril was certainly not lost on former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada, who was driven from office by hundreds of thousands of angry citizens mobilized by electronic messaging.
Lightning rallies, noise barrages and street assemblies were all facilitated by the use of SMS (Short Messaging System) on mobile phones and by e-petitions, as well as by blow-by-blow online accounts of the impeachment trial through the Internet.
Clearly, the wired and wireless media became effective messengers of information -- be it jokes, rumors, petitions, angry e-mail or factoids -- that made People Power II much wider in scope and broader in reach than its predecessor, the grassroots movement that toppled former President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
TEXT POWER
Mobile phones played a vital role in the success of People Power II, allowing people to rapidly mobilize toward one goal. The ease with which text messages can be forwarded created a snowball effect that quickly brought protesters out into the streets.
As one post-Estrada text joke aptly summed it up: CONGRATULATIONS! THANK U 4 UR SUPPORT N DS HSTORICL EVENT. ERAP WIL GO DOWN N PHIL. HSTORY S BEIN D 1ST PRESIDNT OUSTD BY TXT.
Estrada jokes had long circulated in text messages before Ilocos Sur Governor Chavit Singson spilled the beans on Estrada's involvement in jueteng, an illegal numbers game, that led to Estrada's historic impeachment trial.
These text jokes, many in a shorthand that mixed English and Tagalog, questioned Estrada's intelligence and made fun of his English. The jokes had helped Erap's mass appeal as president, said some political analysts. But, ironically, the power of text also paved the way for the former president to lose public support -- and eventually, power.
The jokes sent via SMS were bitingly funny and nasty at times, but they showed the sentiments of the people. Here are two examples:
"ERAP'S PRAYER: Gambling Father who is in jueteng, hakot (wealth) be thy name, thy kickback come, thy wealth be done, in Wack-Wack as it is in San Juan!" (Wack-Wack is an exclusive neighborhood near Manila and home to one of Estrada's alleged mistresses, and San Juan is Estrada's political base.)
"Mr. President, d pipol r jueteng 4 u 2 resign. Kabayan, ipasa mo pra mkrating k ERAP." (Translation: "Mr. President, the people are waiting for you to resign. My fellow countryman, pass this along so it will reach Erap.")
Last Jan. 16, text messages spread rapidly calling for People Power II. The reason: Eleven pro-Estrada senator-judges at the impeachment trial voted against the opening of an envelope containing crucial evidence against the president.
Immediately after the televised broadcast of the voting results, one of the text messages that came in was this: "Baboy ang mga 11 na mga senador! S#%^t, acquitted na si Estrada! Pipol Power na! Pls. pass..." (Translation: "The 11 senators are pigs! S&@t, Estrada is acquitted! Let's do People Power! Pls. pass...")
And for the next five days, the mobile phone and SMS became powerful tools of communication and information among the protesters on EDSA, Manila's central thoroughfare, and throughout the rest of the country.
TOO MUCH TO HANDLE
Smart Communications Inc.'s public affairs department told Computerworld Philippines that the carrier received 70 million text messages a day during that week.
"We don't have a record of voice calls. But that number hugely exceeded our daily average of 45 million text messages," said Ruth Tadeo, Smart's public affairs officer.
Tadeo said that none of Smart's cell sites went down due to the upsurge of text messages, but she admitted it was a strain on the equipment.
"The sudden increase in the volume of messages being handled at that time was so tremendous that sometimes the signals were not coming through, especially in the EDSA area," said Tadeo. "There were simply a lot of people concentrated in just that one area alone."
Meanwhile, Globe Telecom also said it handled a higher volume of text messages as People Power II began, but officials say they can't say how many messages were sent over the five-day period.
Marigold Endriga, public officer at Globe's public relations division, told Computerworld that the volume clearly exceeded the company's average daily text message total of 24.7 million. "Last Christmas we handled 30 million text messages, but we got more than that during (People Power II)," she said.
