MILLION PEOPLE MARCH

THE ROLE OF ICT 

IN 

MILLION PEOPLE MARCH

Thousands of protesters make a thumbs down sign during the anti-pork barrel rally at the Luneta in Manila on Monday.-- Photo by Ted Aljibe, AFPsource: Ira Pedrasa, ABS-CBN news.com

  “By marching on  the streets, we could leave a legacy for our students and our own children that they will grow up in a country free of corruption and thievery and would make them proud as Filipino people,” - Chairman, Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC)


Before knowing what are the roles of ICT in Million People March, let us first know what happened in MILLION PEOPLE MARCH.


Million People March was the first of series of protests in the Philippines calling for the total abolition of the Pork Barrel fund triggered by public anger over the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam. There was hundreds of thousands of Filipinos gathered in Luneta Park, Manila on August 26, 2013 as well as other cities nationwide and overseas. The organizers and promoters of the Million People March used Facebook and Change.org as their, mediums.

Peachy Rallonza-Bretaña, a long-time advertising executive reposted it as a call to action with a date and a place to it- Luneta, August 26. As one of the coordinators, Ms. Rallonza-Bretaña said that "there is no main group leading the protest and described it as “snowballing at great speed”. On the eve of the protests, there are 18,000 people from different groups that join in Luneta Park asked to dress in white but people were encouraged to go in colours they wanted to. It is because they wanted to reflect the protest's inclusive, non-partisan and decentralised. 

source: philnews.ph

It is already 21st century when the Million People March happened and because of modern technologies that time there were lot of Filipinos expressed there anger through  creating blogs, pages, advertisements and even memes to show that they agree to the idea of stopping the Pork Barrel Fund. Example of this is a Facebook event that created by Arnold Pedrigal and Bernardo Bernardo entitled “MILLION PEOPLE MARCH TO LUNETA AUGUST 26: SA ARAW NG MGA BAYANI, PROTESTA NG MGA BAYANI!!!".

Screen grab from the Facebook event page

Another is a group of people called hacktivist or the PrivateX repaired at least 30 government websites early on August 26,2013, hours before the main protests. These includes the websites of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Embassy in Rome.

Through this millennial tool, Filipinos can showed their love for their country and for the people who works hard for their living. They can express their feelings to the government and show how valuable our money is. As the time goes by and as the world will change ICT will always be a part of our great history because no matter what happened and the situation is, Filipinos will always fight for what is right and will do everything for the country.