Crowdsourcing the netizens’ agenda for 2016 PH election

Please fill up the form on What are the issues and concerns from 2010 (and even earlier) which we need to pursue in the 2016 elections?

During the launch of iVote, iWatch on September 24, 2015, Tonyo Cruz said netizens would have the power to set the political atmosphere and agenda in the months leading to the polls. iVote, iWatch is a social media campaign that will enable netizens to contribute election-related content to its citizen media platform at blogwatch.tv. “The number of Filipino netizens has already doubled (since the last presidential elections), from 20 million Filipinos with Internet access in 2010 to around 40 million in 2015… There is a changing landscape,” Tonyo added.

Tonyo wrote an article on this at the Manila Bulletin, Drafting a netizens agenda for 2016 which I am reposting in full , below:

The 2016 election season has officially started, with the filing of certificates of candidacy of aspirants for 18,000 municipal, city, provincial, regional, and national positions.

This is a golden opportunity for netizens to remind ourselves of the issues we faced and got involved in since 2010 – some festering for an even longer time and many still a big pain. These concerns could be starting points for a Netizens’ Agenda, which in turn could be our common talking points with candidates and parties.

INTERNET-RELATED ISSUES

• Poor Internet quality of service that affects education, business, entrepreneurship, the professions, tourism, and even governance. In connection, the absence of protections for end-users and the existence of a de facto duopoly.
• Repeal of the Aquino Cybercrime Law and the enactment of the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom.
• Bridging the digital divide to expand Internet access to as many citizens in as many islands, towns, and cities that have yet to be connected to the Internet.
• Establishment of a Department of ICT, the adoption of a Digital Strategy and roadmaps for e-commerce and startups, and the enactment of proposed legislation protecting rights of end-users.
• A digital government which provides as many services and as much information offline and online, which interacts with citizens through social media, which prefers free and open-source software, and which is open 24/7 to Filipinos at home and abroad.
• Protection of the right to privacy of citizens, and of corporate and national secrets, against surveillance by foreign governments and their accomplices.

NATIONAL ISSUES

• Abolish the pork barrel system – lawmakers’ and the president’s DAP and highly-questionable lump-sum appropriations. Prosecution of all those involved in pork barrel scams, regardless of political affiliation.
• Tax reforms towards a progressive tax system where the poor and the middle class get tax cuts and lower tax rates, while the wealthy pay their fair share. Providing tax relief for the poor and middle class, and stopping excessive and unfair tax holidays and tax rebates given to big companies that don’t need them.
• Improve public mass transportation and related infrastructure.
• Promote entrepreneurship through streamlined, innovative, and transparent processes for business/tax registration, and the removal of institutional barriers and biases that hinder growth of Filipino startups.
• Enactment of a Freedom of Information Law, Anti-Political Dynasty Law, and the Anti-Discrimination Law.
• Implementation of the Reproductive Health Law.
• Occupational health and safety of workers and the investigation of all workplace incidents like Kentex.
• Adequate public investments for Filipino students, artists, athletes, and scientists. Promotion of grassroots-based and long-term athletic, scientific, and artistic development.
• Promote patriotism and the memory of national heroes in all aspects of national life.
• Promote people-centered and heritage-conserving tourism programs.
• Extend maximum assistance to all overseas Filipino workers worldwide. Tapping OFW’s wide-ranging knowledge and expertise towards nation-building.
• Stopping of murders and massacres of Mindanao’s Lumads, and the protection of their ancestral domain from mining operations. Disband all paramilitary groups. Prosecute killers of Lumads and their enablers in the military and the mining industry.
• Improvement of disaster response, disaster-resilient redesign and/or retrofitting of houses, buildings, roads, and infrastructure, and increased budgets for the manpower and equipment of PAGASA and Phivolcs, including the raising of salaries and regularization of more meteorologists and volcanologists.

Yes, folks. We fought, debated, stood up, filed petitions, attended hearings, argued before the Supreme Court, appeared before Congress, and marched for many of these issues. From online to offline, and vice versa.

This list is by no means complete. I invite everyone interested to remind ourselves about other concerns which got widely talked about and pursued online.

#juanvote, our independent and social media-powered citizens’ coverage of the 2016 elections, would be interested in hearing from you. Hopefully, we would find a time and place to draft such a Netizens’ Agenda, with help from a crowd-sourced list and even from crowd-sourced drafting of the document.

The promotion of these issues and concerns could be one of the major contributions of #juanvote and collaborating communities in raising the level of discourse among candidates, and between voters and candidates.

Online and offline popularity should not be enough for any candidate in the 2016 elections. Let’s see their track record, what they know and what they would pledge regarding these issues and concerns.

Let’s do this. We can do this.

Please fill up the form below What are the issues and concerns from 2010 (and even earlier) which we need to pursue in the 2016 elections?