LESS THAN 20% of Ateneans voted during the 2007 elections. Come 2010, more than half of the Philippine population would be composed of voters aged 18 to 25—nine million of which would vote for the first time.
Targeted to educate the 2010 elections’ first-time voters, the IamChange 2010 campaign aims to make the youth understand the importance of voting and choosing leaders through a series of concerts, online forums and blogs, and freebies, among others.
The campaign is a tie-up between the Ateneo School of Government and Team RP, a youth-led organization that promotes truth, accountability, and reform through various projects.
“We’re planning it to be the biggest voters’ education drive,” said IamChange Program Officer Karla Angelica Pastores (BS Psy ’08).
“We want [the youth] to be aware that if we all vote, we could get a chance to elect a president who is efficient and who can really govern the country,” she said.
Pro-youth
Team RP Chairperson Harvey Keh said IamChange was created to cater to the interest and welfare of young voters.
“[The youth] are not jaded… they’re still very idealistic or they still think that a vote makes a difference,” said Team RP External Vice President Eirene Aguila as a reason for the youth target.
“Since it’s the youth [being targeted], you have to go to their level and you have to talk to them in their language,” said Aguila. “You have to go… to where they are,” she added. Currently, IamChange has weekly blogs posted on Inquirer.net.
Aguila said that they will go to bars and clubs and make the website interactive to make Team RP more appealing to the youth. “[It’s] not like some dissertation or formal paper,” she said.
For the 22-month long campaign, IamChange will be holding five concerts, beginning on August 22 at Tomas Morato, where bands such as Imago, Pedicab, and Sandwich, among others, will perform.
Pastores said that the concerts will show the youth how cool voting can be.
Apart from musical performances, IamChange will also hold sports exhibitions and tournaments, as well as art exhibits featuring sculptures, paintings, photography, and fashion.
Another plan is to hold “kapihan sessions” where members from various organizations can bond and talk about the upcoming elections. “[It] is a dialog of young professionals over coffee,” said Pastores.
Privileges
IamChange will also have other activities such as a planned radio show hosted by young Filipinos, together with leaders they look up to as guest speakers. Another plan is a debate similar to Studio 23’s YSpeak where youth leaders will discuss relevant issues.
IamChange will also be giving out privilege cards, which offer discounts and freebies, to certified voters.
“[We’re going to show them] the privilege of being part of the community of registered youth,” said Dustin Balictar (IV BS MIS), one of the heads of the campaign.
Early start
“We hope that the response of the young people will be good, because we are trying our best to reach out to them in their medium,” said Keh.
“I’m being optimistic here but I hope that by 2010, all young Filipinos will vote for a candidate who really expresses good governance for the good of the country,” said Pastores. However, she said that the most she hopes for is that majority of Filipino youth will vote and be proactive.
Volunteer Phillip Don Recentes (IV AB PoS), said that this is a good socially-oriented project worth volunteering for. “I thought it was interesting because it tries to start as early as 2008 and then it’s until 2010,” he said.
Recentes hopes for a change in terms of better voter turnout, specifically among the youth. “I would expect that if I were to be given a database of the 2010 election[s] there would be greater frequency of youth voters compared to the previous years,” he added.
Pastores is open to the possibility that the youth might feel wary of the project, but she hopes that the youth would realize that it is their future that matters.
“Through IamChange, we’re going to make them realize that,” she said.
