The power of being informed
Last Monday, VERA Files unveiled its Vote 2010 page within its website www.verafiles.org.
(Click on the Vote 2010 logo on the upper left side of this page and it will bring you to the page.)
Vote 2010 is a partnership among VERA Files, civil society organizations, the community media, individuals and institutions monitoring the May 10, 2010 elections.
Readers will find stories related to the forthcoming May elections that is being held at the time of deep distrust of the administration that is overseeing the nationwide, untested automated polls.
Readers will also find basic information on the May elections and background materials on the candidates including their schedule and campaign movements.
This partnership is about citizen empowerment.
Elections are the fuel that keeps the engine of democracy going. They give substance to what we believe democracy is: government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
It is during elections that people decide who would be their leaders and exercise their veto power on who they believe betrayed them. For this important decision, they need accurate information to guide them.
It is in fulfillment of media’s role as messenger of information that VERA Files thought of partnering with other groups and individuals to be more effective.
Past election experience showed that mainstream media, despite their ample resources and wide reach missed out on many important stories because they tend to focus on high-profile national contests such as the presidential, senatorial and congressional elections leaving local elections in many parts of the country unnoticed and underreported.
Vote 2010 will try to bridge that gap with the help of our partners which are spread all over the country. Our CSO partners include Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM); Archdiocesan Social Action Apostolate Lingayen-Dagupan; Bangsa Moro Center for Just Peace in the Philippines (BCJP); Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Refore (Citizens Care); Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government (CCAGG); Cor Jesu College; Diocesan Commission on Society Ministry Calapan; Green Forum Western Visayas (GF-WV); Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan; Kapayapaan Kapatid Council; Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE); Movement for Principled Politics in Pampanga; National Citizens Movement for Free Elections Calabarzon; Samahan at Lingap Angat sa Mahihirap; Santungan ng Kababaihan at Kabataan sa Pampanga;Simbahan Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB)/Task Force 2010; Youth Vote Philippines.
Among our community media partners are Easter Samar Bulletin; Leyte Samar Daily Express; Mindanao Current; MindaNews; Punto Central Luzon; Radio Veritas Legazpi; Sibugay Express; West Leyte Weekly Express.
We also have institution partners: Center for People Empowerment in Governance (Cenpeg); Ploghost; Yahoo Ph! Purple Thumb.
There are also those who will be sending election-related reports in their individual capacity. They are Roslyn Arayata; Lorena Navallasca; Ronaldo Ramao; Danny Sabinoent.
The past months, we have been conducting seminar-workshops on reporting, to make sure that our partnership would produce reports that adhere to responsible journalism: accurate, fair, humane, and uncompromised.
This project, supported by The Asia Foundation and the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, aims to bring citizen journalism to another level. We hope that our reports would encourage people,not to just watch and follow but to think and act.
Wish us luck!
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reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.
Reynz, thanks for linking VERA Files Vote 2010 here.
Barrio Siete has a new look (Or matagal ng look. Matagal lang akong hindi napadaan dito). Clean and chic.