How IT helped to topple a president

by Jennifer E. Bagalawis

February 1, 2001 —

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.

Endriga added Globe had to make use of its mobile cell sites when there was a sudden increase in the text messages coming in and out during those days. "We actually pulled out our mobile cell sites stationed at the Senate to ease the load on our equipment and alleviate congestion," she said.

Gerardo Ablaza Jr., president and CEO, was also quoted as saying that there was one mobile cell site in rural Bicol that was called back to Manila as contingency. "What we did in the last 12 hours was to bring up the transceiver to its maximum capacity," he added.

When asked about some of the complaints of Globe users that there was no signal at EDSA, Endriga clarified that these were not dead spots. "There were just too many people concentrated in one place for a cell site to handle, thus the mobile cell sites were deployed in the area," she said.

CYBERACTIVISM

As former President Estrada's "juetenggate" opened last November, spewing wave after wave of bribery and corruption scandals, Filipinos were quick to react to the issues at hand.

But this time, they not only turned on their radios and televisions for much-needed information, they turned on their cellular phones and personal computers as well.

The World Wide Web became another venue for activism as an e-petition for Estrada to resign circulated in the browsers of wired Filipinos. E-Lagda.com was born to gather 1 million electronic signatures for this purpose.

Concerned Netizens needed only to submit their e-mail addresses via the Web site or through SMS on their mobile phones to sign the e-petition, said its moderator, Vicente Romano III.

The site was able to get only 91,000 e-signatures, but Romano didn't lose heart, saying it was still a sufficient number to make a statement and to move the campaign to its next stage, which was to transmit messages to various government officials and let them know the sentiments of the people.

When 11 senators voted to suppress key evidence in Estrada's impeachment trial, eLagda.com was immediately transformed into erapguilty.com to vent the public's own verdict.

It also added another feature, a scoreboard for the senator-judges' performance during the impeachment trial. When the trial abruptly ended, Senator Teresa Aquino-Oreta got the highest disapproval rating, with 1,986 sad faces. Senator Loren Legarda had the highest approval rating, with 1,919 happy faces.

Meanwhile, www.wpulse.com, an SMS poll-taking facility, allowed Filipino mobile phone users to participate in an impeach-Estrada-or-not survey. The site received 5,157 votes in favor of impeachment or resignation and 475 votes for Estrada to remain in office.

Following the Estrada incident, Mon Duremdes, the site's moderator, said that wpulse.com will facilitate polls on other issues besetting the country so Filipino mobile phone users can air their views. He added that the results and the technology behind the site can be made available to various research and polling communities as well.

Other Web sites also became venues of protests, both satirical and serious. Among them are www.tag.org, www.pldt.com, www.geocities.com/juetenggate, www.impeacherapnow.com and http://erap.blogspot.com.

The www.impeacherapnow.com site now has these words on its main page after the success of People Power II: "HALLELUJAH! Deo Gratias! Victory to the Filipino people..." It promises visitors articles on post-Erap blues in the coming days.

E-MAIL AND E-FORUMS

E-groups have also made their mark as a tool of awareness and information dissemination. Members of several e-groups from different sectors were able to air their views in these mailing lists.

Some were able to forward e-mail messages that called for mass action, prayer and vigilance. Others were able to send updated information on other Erap scandals. These messages contained JPEG pictures, poems, essays and views about the issue.

One poignant message came from the retired generals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, pouring out their views on the country's political crisis to the e-public.

Another message, Huling Paalam (ni Jose Velarde) (The Farewell Message of Jose Velarde), was in a form of a satirical poem, describing Estrada's exploits as a gambling lord. Jose Velarde was allegedly the name Estrada used in a secret bank account that was exposed during the impeachment proceedings.

Shortly after Arroyo's inauguration on Jan. 20, a humorous message went out that noted two final ironies:

THIS ONE 4 D

RECORD. ON

1.20.01 IN THE

PHIL & US, THE

NEW PRESIDENTS

WILL BE SWORN

IN, BOTH

CHILDREN OF

FORMER PRESIDENTS,&

BOTH TAKING

OVER FROM

WOMANIZERS

SIDEBAR: A PEOPLE POWER II SMS SAMPLER

Here is a sampling of SMS messages, in their popular abbreviated style, sent during the months leading to People Power II:

DURING THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL:

Aiza, IQ 130 Promil User till age 5.

Ryan, IQ 140 Promil user till age 7.

Miriam, IQ Unstable, Promil Overdose

Erap, low IQ Promil user until now, Still no progress.

(This was a spoof of a local TV ad for infant formula that boasts of developing a smart child. Aiza and Ryan are real smart kids shown in the commercial. "Miriam" is Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.)

Wala kang pera? HINGI KA KAY ERAP.

(You don't have money? Ask ERAP.)

Wala kang bahay? LAPIT KA KAY ERAP.

(You don't have a house? Go to ERAP.)

Wala kang trabaho? SABI KA KAY ERAP.

(You don't have work? Tell ERAP.)

Wala kang alam? LALO NA SI ERAP.

(You don't know anything? So does ERAP)

ERAP'S PRAYER:

Gambling Father who is in jueteng, hakot be thy name,

thy kickback come, thy wealth be done, in wack-wack as it is in San

Juan!

(This is patterned after the Lord's Prayer, but this time the prayer is directed to a Gambling Lord. Jueteng is an illegal numbers game that allegedly helped Estrada amass hakot (wealth) through kickbacks and bribes. Wack-Wack is a posh subdivision in Metro Manila where one of his mistresses has a mansion. San Juan is the political bulwark of Estrada and his family.)

Mr. President, d pipol r jueteng 4 u 2 resign. Kabayan, ipasa mo pra mkrating k ERAP.
(Mr. President, the people are waiting for you to resign. My fellow countryman, pass this along so it will reach ERAP.)

mr. president, d pipol r "jueteng" 4 u 2 resign. Hindi mo na maluluciotan ito...nachavit na pangalan mo. lagot ka!
( Literal translation: Mr. President, the people are waiting for you to resign. You can't squirm your way out of this. Your name has been caught. You're fried!" This version included two of Estrada's cronies: Lucio Tan, a wealthy businessman. He was charged with tax evasion, but the charges were dropped, allegedly due to Estrada's help and influence. Chavit is Chavit Singson, the provincial governor who spilled the beans on Estrada's participation in illegal gambling.

AT THE START OF PEOPLE POWER 2:

Did u watch the impeachment proceedings? Grabe! Nagsamasama ang mga BIG B: Bakla (Osmena), Bakya (Oreta), Bobo (Jawo, Revilla, Sotto, Coseteng), at Bastos (esp. Miriam)!
(Did you watch the impeachment proceedings? All the BIG B's came together - Bakla ("faggot" - refers to Sen. John Osmena), Bakya ("tacky" - refers to Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta, younger sister of Ninoy Aquino), Bobo ("stupid" - refers to Senators Robert Jaworski, Ramon Revilla, Tito Sotto and Nikki Coseteng), and Bastos ("lewd" - refers to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago)!

"Military needs to see 1 million at rally tomorrow, Jan. 19, to make a decision to go against Erap! Please pass this on..."

AFTER PEOPLE POWER 2:

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.

Computer World