Youth group launches 'Noy it Forward'

MANILA, Philippines - A group of young voters rooting for presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is taking advantage of the blogs and social network sites to deliver votes for him.

The group, named “Youth for Noy” believes Aquino is the “youth candidate” in the May 2010 elections.

“We’re confident that our candidate is the youth candidate… What works for us is that we can use the things that weren’t used before,” said Karl Satinitigan, manager for the National Capital Region of the group Youth for Noy.

“Now we have the Internet that has been proven (to be effective) and click with the youth but has not been used in the past elections,” Satinitigan said, referring to the past youth candidates whose camps “apparently failed to deliver enough votes for them.”

Satinitigan said the group values Aquino’s integrity.

“We honestly believe it’s more him than Chiz (Sen. Francis Escudero),” he said.

The group is recruiting 100,000 volunteers in 100 days, to help out in the campaign period starting Feb. 9.

The campaign, called “Noy it Forward,” requires each volunteer to recruit three people to join the group.

“There’s just 100 days left to plan for a crazy campaign. We’d like to make sure that in a short time, we’re ready,” Satinitigan said.

Aside from the Internet, their group will also visit dormitories to campaign for Aquino and host agenda forums.

“We’re going to where they (youth) are to convince them,” Satinitigan said.

Satinitigan said that while the youth campaign is school-based, they will also reach out to other communities. He said that even if they are coordinating with the Liberal Party about their activity schedule they are functioning and raising funds on their own.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro has started his own online support site, HYPERLINK “http://www.gibo.ph” www.gibo.ph, which promotes volunteerism.

Teodoro’s legal adviser and spokesperson Nelson Victorino said the portal had 106,232 page views from July until yesterday.

He said 74.5 percent of the viewers, local and abroad, have pledged to support Teodoro’s presidential plans.

“We are happy with the positive responses of the viewers from here and around the globe,” Victorino said.

He said that upon learning of Teodoro’s bid for the presidency, these viewers volunteered to be watchdogs during the elections.

“We have been receiving support from Filipinos who are registered voters but are working in the United States, Canada, Europe, Middle East, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong,” Victorino said.       – With Jaime Laude