Last June 3rd to 5th, media experts, new media players, media producers, researchers, journalists, activists and others interested in the rise of new media gathered at the University of Southern California‘s Annenberg School of Communication in Los Angeles for the Beyond Broadcast 2009 conference.

Organizers invited this blogger/journalist/activist to speak at the opening plenary session that sought to share local perspectives on new and mobile media. I shared the table with new friends from the Americas, Africa and Asia and we discussed our initiatives and innovations. As the speaker from the Philippines, it was a joy to share Filipinos’ sophisticated use of mobile phones for progressive political purposes.

Here is the full text of my input at that opening plenary session:

Local Perspective: The Philippines’ mobile and new media activism
Anthony Ian M. Cruz
President, TXTPower
Beyond Broadcast 2009

The Philippines is the 12th most populous country in the world. We Filipinos are a people of 90 million spread over 7,017 islands. 11 million Filipinos live and work abroad, especially in the Middle East and the United States.

Today, Filipino mobile phone users number more than 70 million. We send one billion text messages a day. We have more cellphones than landlines. We are a migrant people, with Filipinos traveling and moving from one island to another and from one foreign country to another. Communication is therefore very important to us as a people.

Formed in August 2001, TXTPower is an organization that seeks to empower Filipinos both as consumers and as citizens. While we do not profess to be media or new media organization, TXTPower from the very start until today depends on new media to amplify its positions, influence and mobilize the public, and to compel government and big business to respect the people’s rights.

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In a decision published today at its website, the Supreme Court has opened the doors of Congress to 32 more partylist representatives who fought and won in the 2007 elections. The ruling comes almost two years since the elections and leaves only a year for the new representatives to do their work.

This is good news for common working people, professionals and small businesses. The partylist groups are actually for them, and a number of the would-be representatives are raring to bring their issues and concerns before Congress.

These parties actually won in 2007 and they all deserve to obtain the seat they fought for and won.

Leaders of women’s group Gabriela Network USA, composed of Filipino-Americans and Americans of Filipino descent, have written President Obama about the Philippine rape case involving a US Marine. Among others, the women took exception at the actions and statements made by American officials that may have induced the most recent development: the rape victim has recanted her earlier statement, fired her lawyer in favor of those of the defense and fled to the US.

GabNet’s letter takes a refreshing feminist tone that puts in perspective the macho, patriarchal condemnations of “Nicole”. I agree wholeheartedly with most of the letter, except perhaps in the latter portion regarding VFAs and SOFAs being entered into by the US. It may not be enough to put pro-women provisions in such agreements to prevent US servicemen from committing sexual and violent crimes against women.

[Interesting tidbit: Candice Custodio, GabNet’s chair-elect, is known to many as DJ extraordinaire and hiphop artist Kuttin’ Kandi.]

Below is the full text of GabNet‘s letter to President Obama:

March 18, 2009

His Excellency, Barack H.. Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

We write to you because we are disturbed and anguished by reports that the U.S. government was complicit in the attempt to frustrate the course of justice with regard to the rape conviction of Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith in the Philippines.

A majority of our members are women of Philippine ancestry who already have to contend with the persistent reputation of Filipinas as among the most trafficked women in the world, both in the international labor and sex markets, and as among those so victimized by sexual and domestic violence.

Nine of the eleven women recently killed by intimate partners in Hawaii were Filipinas, who also comprise 40% of women killed by intimate partners in San Francisco. Filipino-American communities, from New Jersey to Honolulu, suffer a high rate of violence against women. This perception of Filipinas as “fair game” for sexual and other forms of violence was created, among other causes, by more than a hundred years of being prostituted to the U.S. military.

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Here’s a roundup of media reports on Barack Obama’s electoral victory to become the 44th US president:

Barack Obama has won the US presidential elections, according to US news networks, becoming the first black US leader.

Over a hundred guests from business, politics, media and other influential sectors have gathered today at SM Mall of Asia for the Election Watch event organized by the US Embassy in Manila.

Online search leader Google.com celebrates its first decade this weekend, with Associated Press calling the US$150-billion company “the world’s most powerful 10-year old”.

The intolerable political and economic crisis and our utter lack of faith in those who pretend to be our leaders continue to compel Filipinos to search for new leaders. We want progressive and patriotic leaders who can stand up for our country and in turn inspire us to unity towards common nation-building efforts.

As the search for such leaders continue, it is profitable for us to know that we’ve had such leaders. One such leader was the late Sen. Lorenzo M. Tañada.

41st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting drew to a close Thursday afternoon, and we Filipino journalists found ourselves gathering at the media center for some generous servings of Singaporean food:

Here are photos I took at Saturday’s event held at the Commission on Elections, initiated by Bloggers Kapihan and supported by the Comelec public information department:

More photos:

Today is the start of my first foreign assignment for Asahi Shimbun. I’ll be boarding a plane going to Singapore to cover the 41st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and related events there.

But before anything else, some observations on our Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1:

Here are photos I took during the picket led by Gabriela at Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City.

The activists went there to protest, and to sit in a dialogue with a DFA official on the case of Hazel, the Filipina allegedly raped by a US soldier in Okinawa, Japan.

Here’s an analysis of the current situation from the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), a public policy center established shortly before the May 2004 elections to help promote people empowerment in governance:

The outpouring of outrage generated by the abduction and expose’ of Rodolfo Jun Lozada, former president of state corporation Philippine Forest, in connection with the $329-million ZTE-NBN telecommunications scam speaks volumes. It can be likened to a spark that has triggered a vast field of fire, so to speak. The abduction of Lozada allegedly by presidential agents and police and his surfacing at De La Salle-Greenhills in Quezon City two weeks ago has unleashed a storm of street protests, prayer rallies, and public assemblies by tens and thousands of individuals from various sectors. These mass actions which are expected to peak to hundreds of thousands of souls along with coordinated protests in the provinces in the coming weeks have been sharpened by a renewed call for Gloria M. Arroyo’s resignation or removal from the presidency.

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By REGINA BENGCO
Malaya
February 22, 2008

MALACAÑANG yesterday said government would allow its critics to hold a prayer rally on Friday but the justice department would monitor it for seditious statements.

“Hintayin natin ang mangyayari. Hindi namin sila pipigilan,” said chief presidential legal counsel Sergio Apostol.

Apostol said the government will not suppress the rights of the rallyists, including Church leaders, to gather in Makati City.

“(Ang) DOJ ang mag-e-evaluate niyan, sila na ang bahalang mag-assess,” he said with regard to statements against the Arroyo administration.

Civil society groups are set to hold an interfaith rally Friday next week. The initial plan was to hold it at the Luneta Park but organizers yesterday said the rally venue would now be Makati City, where a thanksgiving mass will be offered Monday to mark the 22nd anniversary of Edsa 1.

By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
February 18, 2008

AFTER moving successfully to scrap new rules on direct-hiring by foreign employers, overseas Filipino workers are now eyeing protests against the imposition of “training fees” of up to P45,000 under President Arroyo’s “supermaids” program.

Suspended last week was the implementation of a rule requiring foreign employers to post a repatriation bond of $5,000 per employee to guarantee the repatriation of the worker or of his remains, in the event of death, and a performance bond of $3,000 per employee to guarantee payment of the employee’s salary for the duration of the employment contract.