ROLE OF ICT IN EDSA DOS

The power of the thumb

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), in a special report published in 2002, called it the “Text Revolution.” It noted how traditional gateways of information—usually through the mass media — were turned upside down as text messages passed on from one individual to another became a grassroots movement-of-sorts, “where the incredible is trashed and the believable passed forward.”

“Text was also instrumental in mobilizing the thousands of unorganized and unaffiliated whose only ticket to the increasingly frequent rallies against President Estrada was a texted invitation on their — or their or neighbor’s — mobile phone,” the report noted.

In January 2001, Filipinos toppled a corrupt president through People Power II, using one technological tool to maximum advantage-the mobile phone. The short messaging service (SMS) or text messaging provided opportunities to pass on messages rapidly to large groups of people. A content analysis of the text messages revealed three themes, namely: political information and persuasion, protest humor, and political emotions. Political information included rumors and beliefs, persuasive messages to join mass actions, and practical instructions about mobilizing huge protest rallies. Political jokes passed around permitted Filipinos to derogate President Estrada and his allies, and provided opportunities to ventilate pent-up social angers. 

Texting during People Power II demonstrated the mobile phone's capacity to disseminate political messages in a rapid, multiplicative, yet discreet fashion, resulting in a massive and peaceful social force.

In People Power II, it was not the hi-tech mobile phone technology that paved the way for peaceful political transformation in the Philippines. Rather, political operators used the short message system (SMS) technology, more commonly called texting, to mobilize a huge number of people for street protests against a corrupt leader(Beja, 2001). Text messages rapidly spread the call to go out to the streets (Coronel, 2001); in a sense, Estrada was texted out of power (Ricafrente, 2001). By using text messages,rally organizers mobilized crowds in front of the historic EDSA shrine barely an hour after the Senate vetoed the opening of bank evidence against President Estrada (Villamor, 2001).

Nobody then realized how texting could help spark a peaceful revolution, at least until that fateful day in January 2001 when Filipinos ousted a corrupt and philandering leader.

''People Power was never about the heroes of the myth; it has always been about the people.''