Will social media transform the Philippine political landscape in 2016?

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OFW Advocate Susan "Toots" Ople, the former undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the daughter of the late senator and longtime Labor Minister Blas Ople, filed her Certificate of Candidacy for the Philippine Senate as the 90th Senatorial Candidate on Friday, October 16, 2015.

A couple of days back, Susan was At the Crossroad to make a crucial decision: to run for Senator or not. Knowing how politics work in our country, she was very hesitant. She doesn't have at least PhP150M to fund her campaign. She doesn't have the Money, Manpower, and Machinery to boost her campaign. Her advocacy to the OFWs and the labor sectors doesn't appeal much to the big-time businessmen and traders for them to throw in their support. 

What happened next? OFWs from around the world, through social media platforms, encouraged her and rallied to support her in taking up the challenge with their #Ople2016 hashtag. The flood of support gave Susan the strength and courage to file her COC even without the 3Ms.

It is a known fact that social media has bridged the proximity between the OFW and his family. Social media has helped the OFW, who is separated from his family, improve his and his family's quality of life through constant communication. Social media has made life easier for the OFW and his family.

In recent months, many OFW issues were in the headlines because of the use of social media by the migrant workers. These include cases of illegal recruitment, abuses against OFWs, terminal fee integration, Philhealth membership fee increase, and more recently, the customs inspections and taxes on balikbayan boxes, among many other issues.

Looking at the data on the power of social media, the question of the hour - Will social media transform politics in the Philippines? 

I remember posting a fearless forecast in my Facebook status last September 27, 2015:

After seeing the Philippine noontime ratings war heat up yesterday during the exchange of blows between #AlDubEBforLOVE and #ShowtimeKapamilyaDay, I have seen the potential of social media to dictate the outcome of the 2016 Philippine Presidential Elections. 

I believe that the Filipino netizens desperately lost hope, and have become sick and tired of our politicos and trapos. Many have been very vocal lately in most social media posts - which includes the OFW concerns such as the #BureauOfCustomsTax, #BalikbayanBoxInspection, #NAIAScams, etc. Many have used the social media to discuss how our government sucks, how incompetent our leaders are, how thieves and pretenders have occupied public positions, from top - down! Thus, out of this desperation, many find relief in the #AlDub phenomenon.

Social media is here to stay and we all know it. It will grow and will even become more important during the 2016 Philippine Presidential Elections. 

My fearless forecast is that the 2016 Philippine Elections will be fought in the different social media platforms. It has a boundless reach and is in operation 24/7 and will have a great impact to create or destroy a candidate’s public image! 

Let's wait and see how the turn-out of votes will be in the social media battleground.

The 2016 Philippine Presidential Election will eventually give us an in-depth look at how social media and digital technology is going to change the way we choose our leaders. Campaigns and political advertising will not only be limited to the mainstream print, radio, and television media using billboards, banners, television commercials, leaflets, hand-outs, newspapers ad, radio commercials, etc.

Will social media be a game changer?

Will social media transform the Philippine political landscape in 2016?

In 2013 election, Nancy Binay took a ride on her father's popularity during the campaign. She was cyber-bullied as being dark-skinned, unfit educational background and with no political experience. She was lambasted in social media that she was out of shape to become a senator. She was ridiculed for her intelligence and for not showing up in political debates. She was also pitted to Risa Hontiveros. Anyare? She got a Senate seat much to the dismay of Facebook and Twitter netizens, who used these two main platforms to cyber bully her.

How was that possible? There is a reason that political scientists attribute to her winning the Senate race - the Filipino psyche. 

The penchant of Filipinos for drama! The propensity of Filipinos for soap operas and dramatic movies always hooks the emotion. Look at today's most twitted hashtags --- #AlDub, #ShowtimeKapamilya #OnTheWingsOfLove, etc. Filipinos are always hooked into soap operas and will always sympathize with the underdog, usually siding to the one who comes from the poor background. One will notice that also in #TheVoicePhilippines.

Another predilection of Filipinos is criticism! What's sad is that it usually comes from the supposedly educated, the middle to upper class, the tech-savvy group which is only about 10% of the Filipino population. Filipinos just love to criticize even from the most petty of things. Turn a candidate into an underdog and that candidate will get the sympathy vote needed to win!

The political scientists look at the Filipino psyche for drama and criticism as the reason that catapulted Nancy Binay to the Senate and for some other candidates. Many others, however, see the power of the 3M, with the first M as the real game-changer!

That was just more than a couple of years ago but technology and time has changed so fast!

The use of social media will not only be important, it is critical! Let's learn how to utilize the flaw in the Filipino psyche - to see a social re-engineering process in the strategies by our political experts. Let's not fall into this trap again. It's the major campaign tool-kit that we as OFWs possess.

OFWs will use the social media's ability to sway the political views of their families, friends, and peers in influencing them to vote for our OFW advocate to the Senate. By using this tool, the OFW will have a good opportunity to be in touch with large number of voters more quickly, constantly and continuously, and with low or no cost at all. The speed of communication and the involvement and reach to a large group of people will have a significant impact. 

The trend is clear, social media and digital technology will be an ever more important factor for the OFWs to use if we want to see Ms. Susan Ople in the Senate! We still wouldn't know yet what the future might hold, but if Susan was convinced to run without the 3M, it is time for us OFWs to prove to everyone that social media is going to change the political landscape of our country.

"This will be the first-ever OFW-driven national campaign," Susan Ople said to Rappler. "If we break through that proverbial glass ceiling that prevents ordinary Filipinos from dreaming of winning an election through a non-traditional social media-based campaign, then that is already a major achievement in itself."

“We aim to show the power of the OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) vote in 2016. Though quite far away, our overseas workers are now directly in touch with their families through social media. I am confident that they would harness their convincing power to ensure that the right people make it through popular vote,” Ople said to Inquirer.net.

Now is the time to convert those social media plans and strategies into concrete actions to have a Senator for the OFWs in 2016!

Just thinking out loud!

#OPLE2016 #Halalan2016 #OFWsParaKayOPLE

Photo Credit | Inquirer.net
Susan Ople seeks Senate post under NP, vows to protect OFWs

Photo Credit | Rappler (Photo by Czeasar Dancel/Rappler)

RUN FOR OFWs. Susan Ople, OFW rights advocate, files her certificate of candidacy for the Senate on Oct. 16, 2015.