Please join Rock The Vote Concert with popular bands and musicians like Parokya ni Edgar, Kamikazee, Spongecola, Hale, Moonstar88, Itchyworms, Sugarfree and Noel Cabangon and other celebrities on May 3.
LP to tie yellow ribbon ’round RP in 17 days
By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:42:00 04/15/2010
MANILA, Philippines—In the homestretch of the presidential election, front-runner Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III will tie yellow ribbons around the country during a nonstop 17-day concert caravan aimed at binding the youth vote.
Dubbed the “Rock the Vote: Road Trip to Change,” the caravan will trailblaze a virtual single-looped yellow ribbon, winding its way through 18 cities and towns in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao and tying the knot around, ironically, two bailiwicks of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“The caravan will make a yellow ribbon around the Philippines as everyone who attends the concert goes home with a yellow sticker, ribbon or a poster to put on their houses,” Santillan said.
The concert caravan is set to kick off on April 17 in Pampanga and culminate on May 3 in vote-rich Cebu, said Kina Santillan, media relations officer of Sen. Francis Pangilinan, Liberal Party (LP) senatorial slate campaign manager.
“This will bring out once again volunteerism among the people and it will also boost the exposure of our senatorial candidates to the youth sector,” Santillan told Inquirer editors and reporters on Tuesday night.
Also present during the dinner were four LP senatorial candidates—Representatives Ruffy Biazon, Teofisto “TG” Guingona III and Rissa Hontiveros, and former Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, represented by his wife, Aloy.
Biazon, who has a flair for disc jockeying, said he would also play dance music for the audience during the series of concerts. Hontiveros added, she might belt out a song or two.
First gig in Pampanga
Following the first gig in Pampanga, the LP caravan will make a short stop in Tarlac for a mini rally before it proceeds to Dagupan for the second in a series of the “Rock-the-Vote” concert.
The concert is a bigger spin-off of Pangilinan’s concert series, dubbed the “Independent Run,” during the 2007 midterm elections.
The youth-oriented run apparently helped pitch Pangilinan’s reelection campaign. He got 14.5 million votes, landing him in fifth place in the Magic 12.
Aquino’s two-week concert caravan was conceived for similar purposes, with the youth sector as the prime target, according to Santillan.
Overtake Villar lead
LP sources cited the need for Aquino to overtake Villar’s 1-percent lead among the youth aged 18 to 24 and exceed his “dismal lead” of 2 percent among voters aged 25 to 34.
Aquino’s concert caravan will also make its way to Baguio, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Vigan, Laoag, Tuguegarao, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Laguna and Cavite in the run up to major concerts in Cagayan de Oro, at the People Power Monument on Edsa in Quezon City and in Cebu.
Concert organizers are enlisting the help of apparel companies for yellow fabrics they can distribute to concert-goers, she added.
Popular bands
The concerts are expected to draw the youth to the streets and join popular bands and musicians like Parokya ni Edgar, Kamikazee, Spongecola, Hale, Moonstar88, Itchyworms, Sugarfree and Noel Cabangon and other celebrities.
But more than providing a show biz touch to Aquino’s campaign, the series of concerts is aimed at sparking the same spirit of volunteerism that fueled people power in 1986 come Election Day, according to Santillan.
Volunteerism vs money
The caravan and its message of “change” are more than enough to rival Villar’s “Wowowee” sorties, glossy posters and TV and radio ads worth billions of pesos, the group said.
“Volunteerism is the most effective ammunition against Manny Villar’s money politics ... their thousands of glossy posters are being countered with a simple yellow ribbon tied everywhere,” Santillan said.
The concert series will be staged simultaneously with other LP sorties and tours by Aquino and his vice presidential candidate, Sen. Manuel Roxas III, in other provinces.
When not in the caravan, Aquino and Roxas will address concert-goers via real-time video streaming, said Santillan.
The concert series will also feature “specially produced” music videos conveying the campaign’s key messages, including the platform of governance of each of the candidates, she added.
Originally Posted by FNDR
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