Blogwatch: beyond Campaign Promises

Blogwatch has really elevated blogging in the local scene. I am reminded of other international communities that also use their readership following to keep the public informed about politics. And to think that Blogwatch, according to this interview, just started as a voters education blog.

Watching this made me recall the year that was. The 2010 elections is foremost a statement election. Then “President” Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is sufferring from the lowest public approval a President has had since the Marcos Era, going as low as negative thirty-something. The most popular campaign line is of course Anti-GMA, and there were many takers. The handful brave men who ran under the administration ticket were doomed to lose. They received the Kiss of Death with open arms. Most presidential aspirants took the Anti-GMA stance. Any vote for the anti-GMA aspirants is a vote against GMA herself.

And so, P-Noy emerged victorious from the Anti-GMA pack, along the way, spouting numerous campaign promises, like supporting the RH Bill. I know P-Noy, next to his mother the late Corazon Aquino, is probably the most popular President post-Martial Law. But I don’t find myself as ecstatic of him as most people do. He has backtracked on a number of his promises already. I hate to think that he did all that just for rhetorics and rating.

Blogwatch was received warmly throughout the blogosphere and thus post-elections, shifted from being a voters education site to one that monitors the campaign promises of the victorious P-Noy. This I think is a very good move. Bloggers write about anything and everythings, from something as mundane as their pet rats, to food trips, from fashionable finds to the latest gadgets, among others. But political blogging is not as popular. Blogwatch bridged this gap and encouraged bloggers to be more socially and politically conscious. The advocacy for clean elections and post-elections monitoring has made Filipinos more involved and invested in the whole process. It is OUR future afterall that is at stake come election-time.

Having Blogwatch, like a watchdog, would keep P-Noy on his toes. One shouldn’t make promises they couldn’t keep. And Blogwatch makes it clear that the PEOPLE DO CARE and are NOT DUMB. They heard the campaign promises and wanted those promises fulfilled, that’s why he got their votes. And that they won’t just sit back and watch those promises turn to dust.

Blogwatch is indeed a very empowering tool for the masses. How many times have you have someone, anyone, utter a word of disgust for the government’s action, or lack of it, regarding the nation’s problems? How many times have you heard someone, anyone, say “Ganyan naman talaga ang mga pulitiko!” Or, see someone, anyone, shrug their shoulders while saying, “Wala nang pag-asa ang mga pinoy.” Blogwatch serves and will still serve as a venue for these people to rant all they want, but which is properly channeled. The opinions of every Juan and Maria gets arhived and sorted out in the various discussions. And the more they see that they are not alone in feeling duped my false promises, the more they will strive for those promises to be fulfilled. Yay!

Pinoys are said to have very short memories. Imagine this, a dictator that ruled for 20 years and broke so many lives and dreams, is now being seriously considered to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, not counting of course his immediate family that has made a remarking political comeback! Many atrocious and scandalous events in the political history of our country has been buried and forgotten. So too will the campaign promises be if there is no one to keep it alive, to remind the one who made them his responsibility of seeing them through and fought for, if not fully realized.

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Can anyone tell mo who the Liberal Party’s campaign manager is, and in particular, who is in charge of its ads?

I don’t watch tv too often, it distracts me from any work I’m doing. Instead, I keep the radio on and tuned in to am stations, so I can both keep work and keep tabs on the goings-on about the world around me.
I have heard Noynoy and Mar’s recent radio ads. Noynoy, as usual, is appealing to the nation’s nostalgia and referred back the listeners to his parent’s era. And in the face of recent criticisms of his affliations and stand on their family’s controversial hacienda, the Hacienda Luisita, Noynoy’s current radio ad claims that “kami rin ay inapi.” Mar, on the other hand, still strives to maintain his Mr. Palengke image.
What immediately strikes me about these particular candidates ads is the overdramatization.
Noynoy’s ads concentrate too much on his legacy as the son of two icons of democracy, Ninoy and Cory. He keeps on mentioning his parents as a way of selling himself that sometimes I think that he thinks or his campaign manager thinks that that is the only way he could get the Presidency. Not by his anti-corruption platform, nor by his good versus evil theme, but rather, by sheer legacy and lineage.
In his one ad I caught on DZRH this morning, he opens with a statement that they too were “inapi.” Then he proceeds to recount his parents fate, yet again, in the hands of a dictator. While this is a nice attempt to touch base with the people, the masses that experienced the Marcosian might, it smacks of impertinence in the face of the current Hacienda Luisita situation. Hacienda Luisita is one thorn that Noynoy cannot and should not ignore. His mom, though popularly considered an icon of democracy, was not able to demcratize their own vast hacienda. And people are having a deja vu when another Aquino promised to resolve this issue.
Noynoy is appealing to the nation’s emotion. And if I remember correctly from my highschool class in English, an argument that is made as an appeal to the emotion is one flimsy argument. For it is only resulted to if a debater can no longer support his argument with the hard facts and historical data.
Now about Mar. I heard his ad where it seems he is being mobbed by people thanking him for not abandoning them. Although I think it consistent with all his other ads before, the Mr. Palengke series and his padyak stint, it didn’t endear him to me much more than his over publicized wedding with Korina Sanchez did. For in both instances, the ads and the wedding, it grates on my sensibility and rings an alarm bell in my interpersonal skills department. Would you agree with me if I tell you that I think the ads and the wedding are too orchestrated to be genuine?
I am not saying that Mar and Korina do not really love each other, I am in no position to do that as I am not privy to their affairs. What I’m saying is that like Mar’s ads, there was too much hype and emotions, OA (overacting) if in the colloquial.
Ok, let me focus on his ads. There is too much talk and interaction which one can see is “written and directed by” someone else. Like a movie, his ads are carefully reenacted emotions. And sadly, these emotions do not translate well to me as genuine. Why not use actual footages of his palengke sorties if they are aiming for the spontaneity of adoration for Mar? Do people in the palengke not react as the people on his ads do when they see him, which is why they cannot use it as a campaign material?
Now, Manny Villars strategist, which is himself, is a genius. His choice for a campaign jingle writer alone has to be applauded. They are original, yet catchy. Neric Acosta even commented once that Lumad children in far-flung provinces are singing Villar’s campaign jingle without anyone prodding them to. Why, even I catch myself singing to it when it plays on the radio!
I have to say that it that at some level, Villar’s ads also play on nostalgia and emotions. He went back to his “humble beginnings” of a leaking house in Tondo and a “dagat ng basura” as a playground. He also appealed to the people’s dream, of a nation perenially in crisis, to one day live the life they can only dare dreaming of. However, unlike Noynoy and Mar, Villar intelligently avoided having to personally sell himself by letting children sing his story for him. Thus, Villar has avoided having to act in front of a camera when he is no actor really. Also, historical data can support his claim, as he did start out humbly, if not poor-poor like he claims to be, but humble enough to be pass as a regular Juan, then proceeded to build his empire.
If I were to vote now based on how I perceive these candidates to be from their radio ads, no doubt I will vote for Manny Villar. Who will you vote for?

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