How National IDs and the Internet

Can Help Build Peace in the

Philippines
At the Oslo Freedom Forum, we spoke with experts,
practitioners and activists about how to build peace
in their corner of the world. Karla Cruz discusses
how her organization uses emerging technology to
catalyze social impact in the Philippines.
Alessandria Masi June 1, 2018

Displaced Marawi residents queue for water inside a makeshift tent shelter area on May 16, 2018, in Marawi,
Philippines. Jes Aznar/Getty Images

OSLO, Norway – For Karla Cruz, founder of The Cool Kids, a tech
advisory based in Manila, the first step toward tackling humanitarian
needs in the Philippines is building better connectivity networks.

This includes projects such as developing a national identification system

or bringing fiber internet to communities.

Peacebuilding Deeply spoke to Cruz at the Oslo Freedom Forum about

the challenges facing aid distribution in Marawi city, the need for online
voting systems and the women working to bring internet and supplies to
communities in need.

Peacebuilding Deeply: How does the issue of

national identification impact post-conflict
Marawi city?
Karla Cruz: One of the biggest issues we found at the end of the Marawi
crisis was that a lot of NGOs couldnʼt distribute emergency aid because
people werenʼt properly tagged. We donʼt have a national ID system.

Super Typhoon Haiyan came about 11 months before, and a lot of the aid
(that had been distributed after the typhoon) had disappeared. We found
out it was being sold by local government officials. Everyone after the
Red Cross didnʼt want to give more than emergency aid, because people
didnʼt have proper IDs and the organizations didnʼt know who was from
where, who had already been given food, shelter and medicine.

So anything that wasnʼt emergency aid wasnʼt being given out.

Peacebuilding Deeply: This can mean everything

from healthcare to stabilization assistance, right?
Cruz: Yes. Immediately after the crisis had ended, in a town about 100
kilometers (60 miles) outside [of Marawi], the governor was standing on
her balcony and just saw masses of people walking into her town
because there was no more food, no more medicine, and people started
getting really ill.

That was the biggest incentive that got us towards this national ID
system – the mistrust in the governmentʼs identification system, the
distrust that basic necessities would be distributed right after a crisis,
and the rebuilding policy hasnʼt been put in place.

I just want to give light to people that are still working there – that are
never going to be recognized because they are Muslim women.
Peacebuilding Deeply: Can you talk a little bit
about these women working to help in Marawi?
Cruz: The wives of the politicians [in Marawi city] who have come
together and are working on, for example, trying to get internet access in
Marawi city. The only internet connection that is live is the one at the
university. The government is charging them 5 billion pesos ($95 million)
to rewire the city.

But why should we have so much fiber internet when essentially we could
build a mesh network?

So, they are trying to get the people access to information, to educational
material, to be able to monitor people so they can know who needs help,
but they are not able to do that because they donʼt have basic
infrastructure like a telephone or the internet.

Peacebuilding Deeply: We saw what access to

internet or access to 3G can achieve in Syria,
where the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) was able to do things like have a
real-time map showing where the water
distribution was. But you need someone that is
trustworthy and neutral.
Cruz: Exactly, that is what we need, someone who isnʼt Catholic and isnʼt
Muslim, and maybe someone who isnʼt even religious in any way. We
havenʼt seen that yet.

Peacebuilding Deeply: How have these women

been able to make strides helping the
community?
Cruz: They are the ones who are really in touch with the elders of the
community and they have been able to tell us, on the outside, how they
are supposed to be organizing [the IDPs] so they can go home more
efficiently. You can speak to an elder, but you canʼt speak to a member of
the military, for example. They have been a very good guide for people
who are still funding this, like us.

We are sending money to them to buy basic medicine, water, because

not everything gets to the people who really need it. But theyʼre still in
camps.

Peacebuilding Deeply: You are sending it to the

wives?
Cruz: Yes.

Peacebuilding Deeply: So the women are

distributing the aid?
Cruz: Yes, but itʼs not a large town that has been affected.

Weʼre doing a lot now with the government, trying to lobby. I was just
speaking to a woman from Eritrea and she said, “Youʼre lucky that you
have a parliament where you can actually change the rules – weʼve got
nothing to work with.” That made me stop and think.

Peacebuilding Deeply: What rules do you want to

change?
Cruz: For example, internet voting. If we change the rules on internet
voting, then [millions of overseas Filipinos] will actually have a voice.

Peacebuilding Deeply: Do you think people would

vote if they were able to?
Cruz: They were able to vote last election, but it was manual, locally, it
was fully automated. So the overseas Filipinos didnʼt trust it. If we are
able to do that, then they can vote. Why we are also also trying to change
legislation is that with our first overseas election our voter list got hacked.
Our entire voter system was hacked. 54 million voters had all of their
information hacked. So my home address, my passport number, my
birthday, my parentʼs names and my sisterʼs are all on a spreadsheet and
available on the web.

Peacebuilding Deeply: Was the purpose only to

prove that the system was not secure?
Cruz: Yeah, I think so.

Peacebuilding Deeply: How did people in the

country react?
Cruz: Thatʼs the funny thing, nobody in the country cared. They donʼt
have an understanding of what these things mean.

Peacebuilding Deeply: From your experience,

what can be done from our perspective, to help
improve the situation?
Cruz: I think the first thing is that there needs to be more attention to
people on the ground, people who are actually brave enough to talk, but
donʼt have an avenue to speak, because there is no freedom of
expression left in the country.

The president has shut down every major newspaper in the country, or
has taken over ownership, which – in the pattern around where martial
law has gone in the past – is the last step before they declare martial law.

These responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Natalie Sikorski contributed to this article.