Activity 9.

3: A Look into the Past

As mentioned earlier, many events in the past showed us how media play a pivotal
role=in bringing awareness and action addressing social and political issues around the world.
In the Philippines, an example of these events is the Million People March. In this activity, you
are to read the article below about the Million People March – what is was, how it came to be,
how it ended, and what role media and information played in between. Read, reflect, and
answer the guide questions that follow on a separate sheet of paper.

The Million People March

August 17, 2013, a day after the Commission on Audit (COA) released a special report on the
Priority Assistance Development Fund (PDAF), saw how social media became a springboard for a mass
protest. Calls for protest began circulating on Facebook and Twitter after a series of exposés by the
Philippine Daily Inquirer about a mammoth scam involving Congress’ PDAF.

PDAF or more popularly known as the “pork barrel”, the term used to mean funds allocated to
senators and congressmen to be used in their pet development projects, sparked online outrage from the
Filipinos because of how, by nature, vulnerable it is to corruption and how it has become a fund source
for some legislators. What enraged citizens more was that then-President Benigno Aquino III earlier
maintained that he wanted to keep the PDAF.

Consequently, friends Arnold Pedrigal, Peachy Bretana, and Bernardo Bernardo, created a
Facebook event page to gather people who wanted the PDAF scrapped. They said they wanted a
"massive pocket picnic" and to bring one million people at the Luneta Park on August 26.
Astonishingly, the #MillionPeopleMarch surfaced by August 18 and immediately dominated Twitter.

This hashtag, together with #PDAFKalampag and #ScrapPork, flooded Twitter and FB feeds with
over 140,000 social media mentions as of 8PM of August 26. Many Filipinos expressed their anger
through creating blogs, pages, advertisements and even memes to show that they agree to the idea of
stopping the Pork Barrel Fund.

Although the movement originally called to bring in a million people to march against the graft-
tainted pork barrel fund, it has still been deemed a success as the online campaign was actualized with
80,000-100,000 people at Luneta according to the police. This number included professionals, students,
workers, priests, nuns and even civic and showbiz personalities. The movement was even emulated on a
smaller-scale in other cities across the country and in various cities around the world where there are
concentrations of Filipinos.

In the face of the mass’ growing collective anger, President Aquino announced that he was
suspending the releases of money and vowed to reform the system. After the protests, senators also
released statements acknowledging the legitimacy of protesters’ call to abolish lawmakers’ Priority
Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel.

This was the Million People March – a tale of how a group of 3’s call to reform in social media
sparked a crusade against corruption, a movement actualized on the ground.

Sources: Hundreds of thousands join people’s march against pork barrel (https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/475165/tens-
of-thousands-join-peoples-march-against-pork-barrel), #MillionPeopleMarch: Online and offline success
(https://www.rappler.com/nation/37360-million-people-march-social-media-protest-success
Guide questions for Activity 9.3:

1. What was the “Million People March” all about?

● The Luneta Million People March was the first of a series of marches in the Philippines
calling for the full elimination of the Pork Barrel Fund, fueled by widespread outrage at
the scam of the Priority Assistance Development Fund.

2. Who initiated the movement?

● President Benigno Aquino III

3. What role did media play in the conception and actualization of the Million People
March?
Social media made organising and managing large crowds radically simpler. Much like what
Arnold Pedrigal, Peachy Bretana, and Bernardo Bernardo did, today's short post on Facebook
and Twitter will get people's attention.
●

4. What was the outcome of the Million People March movement? Was it successful in
terms of achieving its goals?

● President Aquino declared the suspension of money releases and promised to overhaul
the system. Senators have issued comments during the demonstrations recognizing the
validity of the demand from demonstrators to remove the Priority Development
Assistance Fund or pork barrel of lawmakers.

5. What can you recommend for the betterment of mass media-assisted campaigns such
as the Million People March?

● The march of a million people was only conceivable because the country's masses
sensed a disturbance and mobilized all in a single front to abolish the popular enemy. In
order for this to happen, everything must be in hand in a point of consensus. But it is a
daunting vision to foresee, in all seriousness, because people have different agendas
that they wish to pursue, and not a situation that would have the same perspective.