The voters’ education awareness campaign and coverage of the first independent Scout media group is back in anticipation of the 2025 Midterm Elections on May 12 next year.
AMAPS has announced on their Facebook page that their election awareness campaign and special coverage is back for the upcoming midterm elections a year from now.
PinasALAMIN, was initially launched in 2021 by the then Amateur Media Association of Philippine Scouts to empower the youth, particularly the Scouts to become informed voters and active participants in the Philippine democratic process.
The program includes a two-day voters’ education webinar participated by Scouts and youth around the Philippines.
It presented wide knowledge for the participants as speakers came from different agencies and sides of the political spectrum including Kabataan Partylist, Rappler’s MovePH, Commission on Election, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, and the Boy Scouts of the Philippines.
The campaign which was part of the organization’s broader mission to promoting civic engagement and responsible journalism will be back for the second installment and will be led by a new generation of Scout-journalists.
PinasALAMIN2025 Task Force
According to a Facebook post of AMAPS, the second installment of PinasALAMIN will be headed by Leann Muego, a Scout from Manila Council together with Talitha Dungca from Quezon City council as the vice chairperson.
It is the first time that a formal task force for PinasALAMIN was introduced and formed by AMAPS.
They will be joined by Wilveena Macalalad and Margaret Mapanao, both from Batangas Council; and Rainne Rivera from Pampanga Council as the official PinasALAMIN2025 Task Force.
Former Vice President for Sustainability and Director for International Affairs Bianca Mae Elpedes will serve as the task force adviser.
Elpedes was one of the creators of the PinasALAMIN campaign.
What’s new with PinasALAMIN?
Aside from new and official team members, this version of the Scout-led voters’ education awareness campaign and coverage is expected to be bigger and more organized.
AMAPS Editor-in-Chief Franceine Fernando said that since there is a formed task force, all efforts will be more organized and will be bolder.
“Almost all projects of AMAPS now have paperwork. We make sure that there will be persons in charge of our projects to ensure smooth operations and consistency,” they said.
Fernando was not part of AMAPS yet during the whole PinasALAMIN2022 implementation but according to them, they are confident that they will be able to implement a better and stronger campaign with the new team members and the support of the Scouts.
“I have not seen any documentation aside from the Facebook posts about this campaign and the primer that is already in our archive. This is a challenge for us, but we are definitely up for it,” they said.
They added that they are thinking about making some changes in the approach especially with the webinar, as well as all election-related news coverage up until the proclamation of the winners.
As of press time, the task force has already published three articles related to their campaign.
PinasALAMIN2022 recap
The inaugural PinasALAMIN was deemed successful by the past AMAPS leadership with two days of webinar followed by an open forum and talks regarding social issues that concerns the Scouts and the youth.
In a 2021 memorandum released by the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP), a bigger version of the campaign was included in the programs for the celebration of the Scouting month.
But it did not materialize due to several reasons including red-tagging the program by some officials.
Members of AMAPS worked online covering the elections, writing news, releasing up-to-date election results, while some worked in the field taking part as news correspondents.