TXTPower brings anti-GMA drive to world stage

TORONTO, CANADA – TXTPower, the group that popularized the Hello Garci protest ringtones through its website, has brought its campaign to force President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s resignation to foreign shores.

Convenors Tonyo Cruz and Trixie Concepcion are now in Toronto, Canada where they are delegates to the MobileActive Convergence meeting with delegates from the US, Canada, England, Argentina, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Zimbabwe, among others.

“We are sharing with them the story of the Hello Garci ringtones and how we use mobile tools like text towards Arroyo’s resignation,” said Cruz.

He said that the Philippines is acknowledged in the meeting “as among the avante-garde and at the cutting edge of how to use mobile phones for political purposes.”

“Basically, we would like other people’s organizations abroad to maximize text and mobile phones as new tools for social activism and to bring down cheating, stealing and lying presidents like Arroyo,” he said, adding that a “Toronto Declaration” is in the works.

The Toronto Declaration, a proposal put forward by TXTPower, initially aims to proclaim text and mobile phones as indispensable tools for attaining social change, and likewise demand worldwide democratic access to telecommunication services, sans government neglect or corruption and corporate monopoly control.

Concepcion meanwhile said that TXTPower’s Hello Garci protest ringtones reaped raves from the delegates of the Toronto meeting, with many praising the group for “creativity in creating new forms of protest.”

“They are always left aghast by the story of GMA, and how she has managed to keep power. Nakakahiya talaga. But the saving grace is that the majority in the meeting have full confidence that Filipinos would be able to solve a problem like GMA and again use the most novel technologies,” said Concepcion.

The Toronto meeting with also come out with a tool-kit and how-to’s for people organizations wishing to use text and mobiles in their campaigns.