Wednesday, February 7, 2007
TxtPower is calling for a
Boycott on Globe products and services in response to its refusal to implement the
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) order to rollback its Unlimited Text Promo rates.
The NTC
issued an order for Globe to hold in abbeyance its new promo and revert to the old rates after a TxtPower picket protest last Monday, which
Globe refused to follow.
A s
how cause order was released by the NTC today, summoning Globe to a public hearing on Feb 9. The new order asked Globe to "restore" its old Unlimited Text Promo rates and "cease and desist" from implementing the new promo.
Here's some
chismis from the press conference at the NTC: officials say Globe has never acted this way before and would usually submit to orders made by the Commission.
"Eleksyon kasi eh," says the official we talked to, pointing out that Globe's confidence and arrogance might be because of its ties with politicians seeking its support during the campaign season.
TxtPower and Kabataan Partylist should probably reach out to national candidates and challenge them to take a stand on the issue to generate more support.
I'm going to have to reinstall my chikka text software and fix my SunCell fone for the boycott.
Read TxtPower's boycott declaration.Continue reading this entry >>
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Saturday, February 3, 2007
The chit-chat between some youth activists a few days ago was this
inquirer front page article last Feb 1, reporting youth groups KABATAAN Partylist and College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines' apparent endorsement of JV Estrada’s candidacy for senator.
At the UP Bahay ng Alumni, Lloyd Zaragoza, lead convenor of the Kabataan Para sa Bayan, said his group believed that JV Ejercito would be "a good champion for the youth in the Senate" as he would "fiercely advocate legislative measures to greatly improve the lives of all young people of the land, ang pag-asa ng bayan (the hope of the nation)."
Kabataan Para sa Bayan is a coalition of youth groups that drafted the Kartilya ng Kabataan, which contains the needs of the youth today, like access to quality education, freedom of expression and from discrimination, and employment.
The coalition includes the Kabataan party-list group, Sanlakas-Youth, and College Editors' Guild of the Philippines, among other groups.
The event appeared like a campaign activity, with the crowd chanting "JV! JV!" as the mayor entered the building.
After the endorsement in the latter part of the program, tarpaulins bearing Ejercito's picture and the words "JV Ejercito para sa Senado" were unfurled, and the crowd erupted in cheers.
LFS is one of the organizations which founded KABATAAN Partylist (formerly Anak ng Bayan), a national youth party participating in the May elections. College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) is the only campus publication alliance, with more than 300 members nationwide. Both organizations are known to take a progressive stand on national and youth issues, and are not known to be campaign machineries of traditional politicians.
This was the reason why many were surprised upon reading the report that they were chanting “JV! JV!” during the said assembly in UP.
The whole story:
KABATAAN Partylist and other youth groups were invited at the Balay Kalinaw in UP for a “covenant signing” of a “Kartilya ng Kabataan,” containing a youth platform for the coming elections. The groups knew that several other organizations will be invited in the event spearheaded by Kabataan Para sa Bayan, a youth organization formed by JV Ejercito.
In good faith, the organizations sent some of their members to participate in the event and observe. They did not expect to see the names of their organizations published the day after, endorsing of Ejercito’s candidacy.
I asked a friend who was there what had happened, if there was anything that the KABATAAN and CEGP members have done that could be misinterpreted as an endorsement. He said they made an effort not to be really “seen” in the activity and just be there to participate in the covenant signing. When the part came about JV’s senatorial candidacy, the groups’ reps were silent and did not go up the stage.
He said that there was a deliberate effort on the part of the program handlers to make it seem that the organizations were endorsing JV’s senatorial candidacy. The names of the groups were mentioned during the JV-for-senator part of the event even though their reps refused to go up the stage and be part of the endorsement.
This kind of event shows how politicians take advantage of youth groups and the youth in general during their campaigns. This is not to say that JV is not deserving to be senator or whatever (between JV and Zubiri, I go for the former for not being an Arroyo ass-kisser), but is just an illustration of how vulnerable the youth groups are during election campaigns.
The youth, especially the progressives, must be extra careful and vigilant when dealing with these traditional politicians during the election campaign period.
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Speaking of opportunism: a few days ago, Globe increased its UNLIMITXT rates up 100%, from P50/5 days to P80/4 days. If you’re one of the Globe subscribers who’s mad furious about this new superprofit-making scheme, then sign-up.
Because of my super anger over the new scheme, I immediately accepted Tonyo’s invitation to become one of the convenors of TxtPower. Here’s my contribution to the campaign:
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This is my first entry. Thinking about what my first post will be made me look back at my first YR entry here. That one's really serious. Hehe.
Next entry will probably tackle the Melo Commission’s report on its findings re political killings in RP and a review of Babel, which I watched today.
Please subscribe and feel free to leave comments. The blog is still under construction so you might find broken links and some other errors.
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