On Oct. 4, 2013, we go out anew to march. We march again to respond to the urgent need to tell President Aquino and all government officials: The discretionary, lumpsum, wasteful, whimsical and capricious system of spending public funds – pork barrel system – must go.

Perhaps there is no better example of this senseless, irresponsible and corrupt pork barrel system than President Aquino’s own DAP. It did not come with authority of Congress and was concocted by the Office of the President and the Department of Budget and Management. They said it is about pump-priming the economy, but the release was timed during or after political efforts of the Aquino administration to punish one of its enemies. The naked and shameless use of public funds in such a corrupt manner is a slap on the face of every hardworking Filipino citizen who worked so that government would have money to serve the public and not serve narrow political ends.

We must march to demand the abolition of President Aquino’s DAP, urge full disclosure and stop the use of public funds for patronage and corruption between Malacanang and both houses of Congress.

Social Good Summit 2013 gets underway in Manila today, Sept. 21, and in the next few hours and days in over 120 other cities across the globe. The objective is fairly simple but important: Find new, innovative ways of using social media and technology for social good and social change.

In the Philippines, social media is now playing a key role in exposing and fighting the man-made disaster called the PDAF scam. PDAF is the term used to prettify the pork barrel system, the whimsical and discretionary way the President and Members of Congresss would split big chunks of the national budget among themselves and how to spend it capriciously. This system involves huge amounts of meaningful data called public funds, running into more than a trillion pesos.

Exactly a year ago today, on Sept. 12, 2012, President BS Aquino III quietly signed the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 into law.

For many, President Aquino’s signing of the new law displayed either his ignorance of the developing role of the Internet and social media in our way of life as Filipinos or a sinister plan to use the badly-crafted law as a tool to silence citizens.

Online and offline communities were surprised by President Aquino’s signing of the law. One by one, we stood up and condemned Republic Act 10175: Constitutionalists and deans of the most prominent law schools, advocates of human rights and civil liberties, activists and hackers, progressive Members of Congress and senators, bloggers and netizens.

Individually and together, we made the cyberspace and social media a battleground for Internet freedom.

What’s with our kababayans who are clapping their hands and squealing with delight that the Dutch activist was detained and about to be deported? Hello, earth?

Thomas van Beersum did not violate any law. The cop cried because of a combination of sleeplessness, helplessness and – whether he admits it or not – a nagging conscience when he was confronted by a big protest action carrying slogans he identified with: Wage increases, price controls, tax cuts, etc.

The guy was already at the airport about to leave the country. But what did our great Bureau of Immigration agents do? They nabbed him. They stopped him. He was not to be brought to a regular jail – no, no. He was nabbed so that our awesome BI agents could deport him. It is not only stupid. It is insane.

Watch a livestream of President Benigno Aquino III’s fourth state of the nation address (SONA) starting at around 4:00 pm right here on my blog, courtesy of a streamcast from News5’s SocialTV.

Today, October 4, we filed a petition before the Supreme Court in Manila, against President Aquino.

We bloggers and netizens are asking the court to strike down and declare as unconstitutional many provisions of the Cybercrime Law.