RH redux

"The crucial role played by netizens and community groups cannot be underestimated."

(Part 2)

Last week, I highlighted the participation of community women in the successful advocacy for the passage of the RH bill into law.

Another noteworthy initiative was the first-ever signature campaign for the passage of the bill. This was spearheaded by the DSWP with little support from other groups. Perhaps they did not believe in the tactic. However, I remember that former DOH Secretary Espie Cabral fully supported this initiative.

For the DSWP, the campaign was a means to show public support for the bill.

The signature campaign was done in two ways, online, and community-based gathering of signatures. While promoting the campaign online was easy, the community-based strategy was difficult. It needed warm bodies to go around communities, talk to people, and convince them to support the petition. It was the DSWP’s local leaders in Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao who did this.

This campaign gathered more than 120,000 signatures. The DSWP led in the turnover of the signatures to then Speaker of the House of Representatives Feliciano Belmonte and Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales II. Both promised that they were working towards the bill’s passage into law.

Using social media for the RH bill was another tactic we used. This was started by Carlos Celdran who enjoys a huge Twitter and Facebook. We were engaging other netizens and slowly, a group of online advocates was formed.

Live-tweeting and live-FB posting during RH activities and HOR and Senate hearings and plenary sessions kept netizens updated on the discussions happening in Congress real time. This was one of the most effective online tactics that we employed as interest of socmed users was sustained and online debates were kept alive. Anti-RH legislators were strongly lambasted online.

The DSWP initiated a meeting of online RH warriors so the campaign is more focused and coordinated. Thus, Tweet-ups (Twitter meet-ups) were done and meetings held. In some of these meetings, Rep. Kimi Cojuangco, Sec. Espie Cabral, Rep. Miro Quimbo, Rep. Erin Tañada, and Rep. Edcel Lagman were present to further inspire the online advocates.

Eventually, netizens were already engaging anti-RH legislators and other netizens on their own. The online debates were strongest at this time.

When advocates were strongly calling for the vote on the bill, netizens were engaged to let them know how their representatives stood on the bill. Armed with the political mapping of the PLCPD, we urged people online to engage their district representatives. Netizens told us who their reps were and we would tell them if their rep was pro or anti-RH. Someone asked me for the position of one Rep and I answered matter of factly that he was rabidly anti-RH.

This conversation was used against me by the said representative on the floor of the HOR. When he was interpellating Rep. Edcel Lagman, the rep., without naming me said that he was being maligned online by one RH advocate. He quoted my exchange with the netizen from his district, and said that he was contemplating on filing charges against this RH advocate. He said that that person was in the HOR at that very moment. Indeed, I was, because I was in the technical team of Rep. Lagman.

The online advocacy gave birth to the ‘Abortionistas’. The anti-RH Twitter account @antiRHofficial labeled pro-RH as “Abortionistas” to malign RH advocates online. S/He numbered us and posted online why we were abortionists. More than sixty advocates were called abortionists. The pro-RH netizens had a field day because of his/her ridiculous reasons for calling us such – one was gay, another a lesbian, one did not look good, one worked with a pharmaceutical company, one was my daughter so she must also be an abortionist, etc. From then on, these netizens proudly called themselves “Abortionistas” and continued with the advocacy for the RH bill. This was the group that DSWP had tweet-ups with.

To celebrate the passage of the RH law, the DSWP had a victory party with the “Abortionistas” which was graced with the presence of Sec. Espie Cabral, Rep. Edcel Lagman, and Rep. Erin Tanada. Even then, everybody knew that the fight was not over. Up to the present, the “Abortionistas” remain actively engaged on RH when issues on the law surface.

The online advocacy for the RH bill no doubt contributed to the sustained clamor for the bill’s passage into law. It can be claimed as one of the first, if not the first successful online advocacy initiative that led to the passage of a pro-people bill into law.

Daily community mobilizations were done at the HOR as proof of support for the bill. HOR became a battleground between the pro- and anti-RH groups. It was a battle of numbers. Pro-RH groups made sure that communities would witness the important proceedings on the bill, and on the other hand, show members of the HOR that they are being watched by the Filipino people.

Many of these mobilizations happened when DSWP was the RHAN Secretariat and was thus, the lead organizer alongside Likhaan. Planning sessions for these mobilizations were done in various places right after the sessions. It should be emphasized that many of the DSWP-organized mobilizations were financed by the CSOs themselves. Whichever group had money to share, contributed to the mob.

The following organizations were the major community mobilizers: DSWP, Likhaan, Zone One Tondo (ZOTO), DAMPA, KAKAMMPI, FPOP, and Akbayan. Other groups regularly sent representatives like Filipino Freethinkers, WomanHealth, etc.

The conducted mobilizations showed the strong resolve of community women and allies to see through the passage of the RH bill into law and demonstrated to lawmakers community support for the bill.

Again, these are but some of the advocacy initiatives conducted during the struggle for the passage of the RH bill into law.

The crucial role played by netizens and community groups cannot be underestimated.

The concluding part next week.

@bethangsioco on Twitter Elizabeth Angsioco on Facebook