Campaign urges Filipinos to practice their right to vote

Junior Chamber International (JCI) Philippines, the first nationally organized leadership development organization established in Asia, officially launches its #AmbagKo. Rehistro. Boto. initiative.

The campaign, which primarily targets millennials and Gen Zs, aims to encourage eligible voters to register and vote in the upcoming 2022 national elections. This voters’ education campaign seeks to address the low registration and voter turnout in past elections by educating Filipinos on the importance of registering and voting.

With Filipinos 18 to 35 years old numbering 40 million or 37 percent of the entire electorate eligible to vote in 2022 according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and Commission on Elections (COMELEC)^[1], millennial and Gen Z Filipinos play a key role in shaping the future of the Philippines. The latest COMELEC data show there are 3.48 million voter registration applications filed between January 2020 and May 15, 2021. Of these, 1.5 million are new registrants^[2], still short of the 4 million target by COMELEC.

The #AmbagKo. Rehistro. Boto. hopes to boost these numbers and encourage eligible voters, in particular millennial and Gen Z Filipinos, to step out, register and vote through fun and informative content and activities, including an exciting gamification system. Riding on the popularity of the term ambag, the #AmbagKo. Rehistro. Boto. campaign sends the message that registering and voting can be the youth’s ambag or contribution to nation-building and a better future for the Philippines. The campaign is also in line with JCI’s 2021 theme of More For Others, a reminder that we can be more while doing little things to create a lasting impact for our country.

“We believe in the strong potential of the Filipino youth in charting a new path for the country by choosing our next set of leaders. As an organization with young members ourselves, we at JCI want to use our platforms to encourage fellow Filipinos to register and vote. We hope that through this campaign, we can raise awareness and fuel the nationalistic spirit of the Filipinos as the elections draw nearer,” shared JCI National President Jude Acidre.

The campaign will run in two phases – Rehistro, from June 2021 to October 2021, and Boto, from November 2021 to April 2022. It will combine influencer engagement and digital and social media to reach more Filipinos, even onboarding Munimuni, a local indie band known for their makata pop, to write and perform the campaign’s theme song Ambag Ko, which perfectly articulates the campaign’s key objective of encouraging everyone to vote for change.

“While the campaign will mostly be done online, we at JCI will do our best to reach the Filipino youth and every eligible voter wherever they are. We are mobilizing more than 200 JCI chapters nationwide to reach more areas and more voters,” Acidre adds.

With many areas in the country still under varying quarantine levels, the campaign will provide Filipinos with engaging and informative content on the steps they need to take in order to make their ambag amid the pandemic.

Voter registration for the May 2022 elections started on September 1, 2020 and will run until September 30, 2021. Eligible voters may register from Tuesday to Saturdays, 8AM to 3PM in COMELEC offices. The public are encouraged to accomplish their application form and set an appointment online through the COMELEC website.