It came as a surprise since today’s young people have generally been dismissed as apathetic – oblivious to their society and uncaring about its democratic processes.

Yet, many of the videos tackling the need for social awareness and, very recently, those promoting voter education were sent by these young people who belong to the Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo: Ako ang Simula (BMPM) project of ABS-CBN.

BMPM is an election-focused citizen journalism campaign. It aims to help democracy by encouraging people to monitor and speak up about election-related incidents in their communities. By speaking up and telling the media about these incidents, issues are spotlighted, and authorities’ attention is called. Hopefully, problems are resolved.

The campaign has so far attracted about 72,000 registered Boto Patrollers. Another 30,000 people are in the online communities of BMPM in Facebook, Multiply and the main BMPM site (bmpm.abs-cbnnews.com). They submit or post opinions and reports about events and incidents they want ABS-CBN to report or investigate. When called for, investigations and news coverage are done. Reports end up in ABS-CBN and ANC news programs and other platforms.

Lately, and most significantly after the Ako ang Simula: Himig ng Pagbabago free concert for Boto Patrollers on Feb. 19, BMPM has been receiving music videos tackling the need for social awareness and voter education.

The concert was a smashing success. It featured a dozen of the country’s most popular bands and artists, and about 20,000 Boto Patrollers showed up at the University of Santo Tomas Parade Grounds and Athletic Fields. The concert also featured stories of brave Boto Patrollers who have contributed tips and reports about the 2007 elections and the Nov. 23 Maguindanao Massacre. It was also an opportunity for Boto Patrollers to renew their vow to patrol elections and guard democracy.

Among the first videos BMPM received after the concert came from a group of students from the Ateneo de Manila High School’s graduating class.

Patroller Ian Aguila posted the video to the BMPM site. He and his classmates put together the video as part of a project for their Filipino class.  The video features a series of people stating their hopes and wishes for the country. The video is representative of what seems to be a snowballing effort from disparate sectors and groups to highlight the need to use the May 10, 2010 elections as the Filipinos’ collective chance to change their lives for the better.

The same theme was reflected in another video posted by another group of students in the BMPM site.

As part of a Filipino class advocacy project, a group of students from the Small World Christian School Foundation (SWCSF) in Baguio City composed a song called Halalan sa Bayan ni Juan. It calls on people to vote wisely and responsibly, and to grab the next elections as opportunity to change things.

At the BMPM Multiply account (botomoipatrolmo.multiply.com), young people were also creating buzz through videos.
Next year’s graduating students from the Philippine High School posted at the BMPM’s Multiply site an infomercial urging people to scrutinize their candidates. The video featured students who took potshots at politician stereotypes and acted out how silly these stereotypes are. In the process, the students’ video was able to show the people why it is important to carefully choose who one votes for and picks for the elections.

These efforts by the young people are signs that today’s youth is not necessarily as apathetic as some quarters have portrayed them to be. From the looks of it, they are using technology they are comfortable with and available to them to create things that will help people get informed and hopefully, motivated to act for the elections and democracy. That should be a very good thing for a country that has long recognized the youth as its ultimate hope.