Technology makes its mark in political campaign

By Norman Bordadora
Inquirer
First Posted 19:40:00 03/24/2007


MANILA, Philippines -- Advances in information technology, particularly the Internet, are taking center stage in this year’s election campaign and candidates are maximizing their use to reach out to as many voters as possible.

Now candidates get more exposure through podcasts, including INQUIRER.net’s www. and blogs in which they can present their respective platforms of government to the voting public.

Genuine Opposition candidate Loren Legarda thanks the country’s keeping up with global gains in technology for the new ways by which to reach voters.

"Technology has really changed our lives, even the way we candidates reach out to the people. There are Internet podcasting, website-hosting, blogging, and limitless information at the click of a computer mouse," Legarda said.

She credits her sons Lanz and Lean for keeping her up to date on the latest technology such as going on podcasts and going on the Web via wireless Internet or “wi-fi.”

Even for members of the media covering campaign trips, Internet service, preferably of the wireless kind, is now almost indispensable.

One of the questions first asked is whether their billeting arrangements include wi-fi and, if it has none, where the closest Internet shop with broadband capabilities is located.

The Genuine Opposition has made sure its new campaign headquarters on Ayala Avenue would have wi-fi-ready offices for reporters covering its candidates.

“It’s equipped with the needs of reporters. It will have wireless DSL as well as computers for those who do not have laptops,” said GO spokesperson Adel Tamano.

The GO campaign team made an informal survey of what journalists would need in its media center and one of the first things mentioned was Internet connection, not the old press office staples -- a printer, a fax machine, and coffee.

On one campaign trip in Mindanao, lawyer Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III went on a local radio station and declared that he was “the new and improved” Aquilino Pimentel.

The younger Pimentel has been at the receiving end of brickbats concerning dynasty-ism as he’s running for a seat in the Senate while his father, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., is an incumbent until 2010.

And what better way to make it known to the tech-savvy youth than by using computer jargon and software nomenclature?

“I am Aquilino Pimentel 2.0i. I am the second version of Aquilino Pimentel. There is an improvement and an innovation,” he said in an interview over a local radio station in Compostela Valley.

“It is right to say that if you knew my father Nene, you’d already know me. But there are some improvements,” he said in half-jest.

The latest versions of computer software are usually differentiated from their predecessor-editions by adding the figures 2.0 or 3.0, depending on how many generations or improvements of the programs were already made. The “i” seems to denote innovation.

“My father was a bachelor of laws with an undergraduate degree in political science. I have a law degree and my undergraduate degree was in mathematics. I am more scientific and I am more balanced,” Koko said. “And this is what I plan to bring to the Senate if I win.”

Pimentel III, 36, is running on a platform of education and better opportunities for the youth.