UN report cites Filipinos' use of technology for toppling Estrada

A United Nations report prominently mentions the Philippines as an example of a country that used recent communications and information technologies to gain political empowerment.

The 2001 United Nations Global Human Development Report (UNHDR) cited the Philippines for using "e-mail campaigns that helped topple President Joseph Estrada in January".

The report, which was published by the United Nations Develo-pment Programme (UNDP), noted the Philippine experience in pointing out how information and communications technology (ICT) can provide "powerful new ways for citizens to demand accountability from their governments", reduce global poverty, and benefit human development.

In the run up to Estrada's January ouster, the mass demonstrations against the then president were known to have been organised using technologies such as the mobile phone-based Short Message Service (SMS) and the Internet.

Estrada has been accused of amassing illegally-acquired wealth during his more than two years' stay in office and of using his position to get kickbacks from shady deals between the government and big business.

Groups such as E-lagda collected the support of more than 150,000 Internet users to petition for Estrada's ouster during the impeachment trial of the embattled Philippine leader. Similarly, leaders of other anti-Estrada groups, such as the alliance – People's Congress (Kompil) – used text messaging to notify its members about when and where rallies against the president will be held, as well as other details.

The same group is also believed to have used text messaging to spread anti-Estrada propaganda. During the height of the mass demonstrations, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) estimates that some 20 million text messages were sent daily.

"Political participation is being defined by the creative use of two-way communications," the UNHDR said. The UNDP report also showed that the Philippines managed to improve its human development level despite the "economic and political crisis", placing 70th among 162 countries being monitored for human development achievements.

Although the country's ranking was a seven-notch climb from the 77th spot it got the year before, it still remains in the category of countries with "medium" human development, with a Human Development Index (HDI) level of 0.749.

On top of this year's HDI list are Norway (No. 1) and Australia (No. 2), unseating third placed Canada – the leader – for the past six years. The HDI is computed on the basis of three indicators, namely, life expectancy, educational attainment, and adjusted real income.