the new battleground

The Internet seems to have become a new battleground for this election's candidates.

It seems logical for candidates who lack the machinery or the numbers -- or both -- to use the Internet for their campaign. Blogs in particular are free, easy to maintain and update, and accessible even to Filipinos outside the country. Perhaps more importantly, they cater to a new audience, the informed citizenry, the online activists who are engaged and empowered to make changes.

Kapatiran senatorial candidate Martin Bautista for one, a virtual unknown, maintains a blog called On My Way Home. It begins with a blog post titled "My First Blog Post" on 18 January 2006, and is updated regularly. What makes this blog noteworthy is that it is true to the nature of blogs. It is a faithful chronicle of Bautista's journey back to the Philippines, including his personal insights, hopes, doubts, and misgivings. One can picture Bautista blogging away at his computer at the end of a long day, despite his busy schedule.

Contrast this with the blog of another senatorial candidate, Tessie Aquino-Oreta of Team Unity. Unlike Bautista's blog, Oreta's blog's title, Tessie sa Senado! says it all. But again, unlike Bautista's blog, which is religiously maintained, Oreta's contains only one post, entitled "Why blog? Why education?" dated 28 March 2007. On the other hand, it looks and feels suspiciously like the blog of Tito Sotto, another Team Unity candidate, entitled Tito Sotto sa Senado! and containing only one blog post, from around the same time.

I have yet to see the other candidates' blogs, but this is just an example. If one were to vote based on blogs alone, Bautista would win, hands down. On the other hand, Oreta and Sotto can certainly afford not to have a blog, as they both have the resources for a full-blown, tri-media campaign. But only one post?

This makes me wonder what the Comelec says on the use of blogs for the campaign. If there are no restrictions on this as yet, it would be interesting to see how this year's elections might change that.