Green Team Movement

THE DOGHOUSE was bursting of a color that isn’t usually identified with our campus—a color that wasn’t our own, one that brought especially poignant memories, and instilled antagonistic feelings in us during basketball games.

But today, the Team Gibo movement in Ateneo was determined to paint the town green.

Online head start

Yet again, the Internet proves that it is capable of nurturing not only your personal profile, but political movements too. “Everything started with Facebook,” says junior Johanne Bautista, who spearheaded Gibo’s campaign in the Ateneo through direct contact with the candidate’s campaign managers. “But you can’t just campaign online, you have to go out and make yourselves visible,” she says.

As the elections are coming closer by the day, the Green Team plans to engage in direct campaigns around the area, such as Katipunan and the LRT stations. “There are a lot of people who are still undecided,” she says. “And we believe that when you get people convinced at this time, parang mas matatatak sa isip [embedded on their minds].”

Not too late

Johanne’s expression quickly shifted from relaxed to eyes that depict stern conviction when asked about the alleged dominance of Noynoy supporters in the university. She begins with a resounding no, and then says, “We are here to prove that Ateneo is not purely yellow. Gibo won the mock elections, right? How can that be?” She adds that surveys must not sway our votes, and that those who don’t stand for their beliefs stand for nothing and fall for nothing.

“That’s why we don’t get the best,” she says, “because we don’t choose and stand for the best.”

A new hope

And ultimately, that is the thrust of the Green Team, to push for objectivity and looking into a candidate’s platform and credentials. “[Gibo] wasn’t offering you a magic potion that will stop corruption and poverty,” says senior Kath Choa, who became a member of the team after seeing the presidential candidate in Harapan. “He doesn’t promise anything that’s empty. And we need a candidate that looks into the future instead of the past.”

“We are supposed to be thinking people, we study the candidates. As far as we know and believe, it’s really Gilbert Teodoro,” Johanne says.