The De La Salle Lipa (DLSL) Student Government (SG), in partnership with ABS-CBN Bayan Mo Ipatrol Mo (BMPM), Star Magic, Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), and Lipa Archdiocesan Social Action Commission (LASAC), held the “TAYA TAYO: Voter’s Education Webinar” to discuss people’s rights to vote, citizen journalism, and media roles during the elections via Zoom Feb. 4.
The webinar also actively encourages youth to participate in the upcoming 2022 elections and vote responsibly.
Antonette Eduardo, LENTE’s Networking and Advocacy officer, started the webinar by discussing various electoral matters, including people’s right to vote and the importance of responsibly acting when casting their votes.
“It is important [for] us to exercise our right to vote, dahil yun and magdidikta ng future ng ating bansa […] We should also be critical and mindful sa pagpili ng atingi iboboto, remember that every vote counts,” Eduardo stated.
Eduardo also mentioned how social media plays a significant role during the election season since it is well utilized for campaigning.
Moreover, BMPM Head Rowena Paraan discussed the importance of citizen journalism and how the public can actively gather and share useful information.
Paraan shared that ABS-CBN launched BMPM during the 2007 elections for the public to keep a steady track of the candidates. It has been an ongoing program, especially during the elections, where they also conduct various voter education forums and training workshops on election reporting.
“[With] citizen journalism, pwede niya mabigyan ng boses yung mga ordinaryong tao, it lets the voices of the people be heard. Instead of having officials interviewed, we wanted [to hear more from the] ordinary people,” said Paraan.
Meanwhile, Jervis Manahan, an ABS-CBN broadcast journalist and the speaker of the third forum, ‘Getting the Right Information,’ underlined how media serves as the link for the aspiring candidates to convey their message to the electorate.
“The media has the power to set the agenda; how to conduct the coverage, what questions to ask candidates, how to filter messages during the campaign, and which stories to air,” Manahan stated.
Manahan concluded his talk by emphasizing that the media provides helpful information to guide the public’s decisions.
“Media should help you be an informed voter, tutulungan lang nila kayo magisip at buoin and desiyon niyo kung sino ang dapat iboto, but at the end of the day, boto mo yan, so protect your vote!” says Manahan.
Aprille Cawayan, a fourth-year BSBA Marketing Management student and attendee of the forum, agreed with Manahan’s statement and believed that media does play a key role every election period. It also helps the public to make their decisions.
“It strengthened my idea of media and its role in the elections as they present the public with all they need to make an informed choice,” says Cawayan.
On the other hand, Jovs Briones, SG executive vice president, said that this voter’s education webinar is only the first installment of their civic education project with their partner organizations.
“With the help of our partner organizations, this project will also implement different workshops that will be participated by our students in the coming days; fact-checking workshop, monitoring and reporting the elections, and citizen journalism or mobile journalism,” said Briones.
The webinar had a total duration of three hours and thirty minutes, with about 254 people from various schools and organizations present in the event, while 2,200 viewed the live stream through DLSL SG’s official Facebook page.
