DIGOS CITY (MindaNews / 25 March) — Youth movements supporting the candidacy of Vice President Leni Robredo packed the 5,000-seater Davao del Sur Coliseum on Thursday with hopeful supporters coming from the Davao region and and areas nearby.
From the huddle on the coliseum floor, the Robredo supporters came from different sectors, ranging from students to teachers to progressive groups. It was clear though that most of the audience was from a sector that may well determine the next elections: the youth.
Some brought their families with them, but the youth voice was resounding.
While seemingly insignificant, the numbers speak for themselves when it comes to the fraction of the total number of voters: According to James Jimenez, spokesperson of the Commission on Elections, voters aged 18 to 40 comprise at least 51% of the votes on May 9 with those in the 18 to 30 age group accounting for 30% or around 20 million of the counry’s 65.7 million registered voters.
It’s easy to spot that the audience at the coliseum was young. While most of those digging into the fanfare of supporting their candidate, some were multitasking. Some were crouched in the middle, their screens lit up in the dim of the coliseum and showing the all-too-familiar online class screen. One student, MindaNews noticed, was even taking an online quiz, posted in the hours of Thursday’s rally.
Jerome Ferenal, a BS Development Communications student at the University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan, North Cotabato, took an online quiz while in the middle of the campaign rally. Ferenal had just found out that their teacher posted the quiz online.
Jerome Ferenal, a BS Development Communications student at the University of Southern Mindanao Kabacan, takes an online quiz while in the middle of a campaign rally for Leni Robredo at the Davao del Sur Colosseum. Ferenal had just found out that their teacher posted the quiz online and proceeded to answer the test in the midst of all the fanfair. MindaNews photo by YAS D. OCAMPO
Most of the crowd was young and you could tell from the way it craned its necks downward in the middle of lulls during the campaign, posting photos online, some checking their news feeds unconsciously.
Less on drone, more on door to door
The past few days have seen followers from across the political spectrum post aerial shots of different campaign rallies, notably coming from the camps of both Robredo and opponent Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
However, one of the Robredo supporters is saying the Robredo campaign teams on the ground needs to stop its drone fixation.
Dr. Omid Siahmard, a Robredo supporter from M’lang in neighboring North Cotabato, called on his own ranks to engage beyond the body count.
“Ayaw ba talaga tanggapin ng Kakampinks na marami naman talaga ang pumupunta sa Uniteam rallies? Ikakatalo natin ang denialism,” (Don’t the Kakampinks want to accept that many are also going to the UniTeam rallies? Denialism will defeat us), the University of the Philippines College of Medicine graduate posted on Twitter midnight of March 23.
The post has generated 856 retweets, 658 quote tweets, and at least 13,300 likes on microblogging site Twitter as of Friday noon, with much of the criticism aimed at Siahmard coming from Robredo’s supporters, some of whom do not know that he was the coordinator for delegates from his hometown who attended the Digos rally.
For Siahmard, posts like the one made at Pinoy Ako Blog did not gain anything. He was talking about a post by Filipino blogger Pinoy Ako Blog of an empty field at a BBM Uniteam rally. The blogger captioned the post: “At 3pm.”
“Look at accounts like Pinoy Ako Blog na tinatawanan ang Uniteam crowd kapag kakaunti palang (like at 3pm). Anong gains niyo diyan?? Nagdodoor-to-door na kami rito. MAGDOOR-TO-DOOR NA TAYO. ITO, ACTUAL VOTE CONVERSION. (What will you gain by posting that only a few attended the Uniteam rally at a certain time? We are going door-to-door here. Let’s go door-to-door. Go for actual vote conversion), the young doctor said.
Siahmard called out the post early into its distribution and cautioned against relying on body count. True enough, Siahmard would post an aerial shot of a packed Cavite grounds later into the night.
Conversions offline
To ground teams like those of Siahmard, the more important engagement comes from conversions made offline. House to house votes matter, and tweets and Facebook posts and drone shots will only do so much.
A supporter takes a swipe at Leni Robredo’s political rival Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. by pointing out the latter’s flaws, during a rally held at the Davao del Sur Colliseum in Digos City. MindaNews photo by YAS D. OCAMPO
While Robredo is seeing a pivot of support in Mindanao from older voter blocs, most recently from the Partido Reporma camp of Davao del Norte’s Pantaleon Alvarez, its youth voters are not only young but also outspoken.
The Digos rally didn’t just show youths raising their phones in the air, there were placards, too. And these were not mere witty placards of support. Some of the signs have remarks appended with “For Leni,” to show their sector, whether these were actual or plainly ironic.
Humorist and Palanca award-winning writer Jade Mark Capiñanes posted on his own Facebook his placard, which read: “Mga teachers na confident sumama sa rally kasi may kasamang principal… For Leni.”
Capinanes teaches at the Davao Christian High School in Davao City. He says the fight is on even in places like Davao City where Robredo voters are a minority, even among their school’s faculty.
Some of the placards also showed different Mindanao issues, appearing to appeal to the Vice President for support.
A former student of Lumad volunteer teacher Chad Booc, who was killed in New Bataan in February, wrote an open letter addressed to Robredo.
“Dear Leni,” the student wrote on pink cartolina, “Unta mabasahan nimo gipatay ako titser na si titser Chad ug titser Jurain. Unta matabangan nimo mi makab-ot ang hustisya alang kanila. Salamat! (We hope you get to read this. My teachers Chad and Jurain were killed. We hope you can help us achieve justice for them).
State forces reported in February that teachers Chad Booc and Gelejurain Ngujo II, along with UP Diliman College of Education former student council chair Kevin Castro, were killed in an encounter between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the New People’s Army.
The families of those killed have since asked for independent probe on what they claimed was a massacre.
Another placard called for banning mining in Tampakan, South Cotabato. While Robredo herself, and running mate Francis Pangilinan make it a point to read these signs during visits to different Mindanao areas, these signs of legitimate Mindanao issues were only a few in a sea of witty remarks.
In an information ecosystem that tends to publicly bully dissenting opinion, rally participants seem hopeful that a Robredo administration would be more welcoming of these placards: whether they be witty, meta (“walang maipost na witty remark… for Leni”), or hardcore.
Thursday’s rally came 46 days before May 9.
Whoever wins that day will lead the country from June 30, 2022 to June 30, 2028.
For these supporters, each vote matters, even if it means having to argue among themselves how to sway others to vote for their candidate. (Yas D. Ocampo / MindaNews)
