Seminar: Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo!

IT-EXPO BLOG: Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo

February 11, 2013

In line with the upcoming 2013 elections, ABS-CBN in partnership with the De La Salle University conducted a seminar entitled: “Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo” which is the flagship program of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs team for the 2013 elections.

The main aim of the seminar is to inform and encourage students to vote wisely and to be one in engaging in a clean and peaceful election by being vigilant of what is happening around us especially with all the campaign going on. The DLSU College of Law Vice Dean presented the former and late DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo’s i4Juan 4 Pillars of Democratic Leadership or the 4I’s which are: Integrity, Intelligence, Inclusiveness, and Innovation.

The seminar conducted a sample or simulation of the voting process highlighting the PCOS Machines. One representative from Comelec handled the simulation to show to us students how it works as most of us are first time voters. Surveys result and statistics were presented to us basically on how they conduct the survey, their sample size and the current rankings of the senatorial candidates where both Senator Loren Legarda and Senator Chiz Escudero lead the senatorial race.

One of the topics in the seminar is the role of the youth in the upcoming elections. I learned a lot of things with Mr. Atom Araullo’s talk where he emphasized that the youth is the voice of this generation. Us, the youth has the power to align what is wrong in our government by having an educated vote. Us, the youth are encouraged to take part in reporting what seems to be wrong during the election period or simply be an “election watchdog”. With our strong connection with the social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and other more, we are encourage to one of the “boto patrollers” to ensure that we have a Safe Vote for the 2013 elections.

One of the most intriguing topic in the seminar is what Mr. Francis Lazatin presented which is about who to vote when it involves a candidate is part of a political dynasty. He presented a flowchart on how a Filipino should vote come May 2013 when it highly involves a candidate from a Political dynasty. In his flowchart that he presented states that if a candidate comes from a political dynasty then automatically vote for the opposing candidate which I strongly disagree. One very good example of a good political dynasty is the leadership of the Gatchalian brothers in Valenzuela City where the Mr. Sherwin Gatchalian holds the position of the City Mayor while his younger brother Mr. Rex Gatchalian is the congressman of the 1^st district of Valenzuela City. The leadership of the Gatchalian brothers really showed a good progress and improvement in Valenzuela City making it the 2^nd best city or the 2^nd business friendly city in Metro Manila. In my own opinion it should be the discretion of the voter on how they will vote if a candidate is from a political dynasty because many political families are performing well.

Let’s have an educated vote.