At the mini-concert presented by ABS-CBN and Manila Bulletin, it was evident that music swayed those in attendance towards vigilance and change.

Just a quick flashback.  The infamous (and still unfinished) Dacer-Corbito double-murder case plus the jueteng-gate brouhaha in 2000 and last year’s ZTE broadband scandal;  couple all of these with the devastation that typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng brought to the country recently and you’ll certainly feel like every good thing in this planet has seemingly left the Filipinos for good.

All may be lost, except for something as genuine and passionate as RockEd Philippines’ cause. 

The group, founded by Ateneo de Manila University faculty member Therese “Gang” Badoy, has been in existence since 2005 and has helped a lot since then in influencing the way young Filipinos think and act towards the welfare of our country.  They were invited to participate and organize a mini-concert at the Manila Bulletin grounds last Wednesday, December 02, 2009, during the re-launching of ABS-CBN’s “Boto Mo, i-Patrol Mo: Ako ang Simula,” an advocacy campaign which encourages Filipino citizens to use new media and their mobile phones to patrol the vote and push for clean elections in May 2010.

The evolution of RockEd
What started out as a mere volunteer group that provides venues and events for alternative education through music, photography, poetry, and the like now finds itself evolving into a more diverse medium that caters to the Filipino youth’s preferences.

“Considering the people who comprise it (RockEd) from the start until now, it’s just a natural reaction of an organization to evolve,” says Gang, referring to how RockEd Philippines has transformed as a non-traditional non-governmental organization (NGO) through time.  “I think our advantage is that we only attract people with initiative.  A traditional NGO is very focused; they usually have administrative shapes even before volunteers come in. So when you volunteer, may task lists — may assigned tasks.  As for RockEd, we have been flexible in changing our shape with whoever comes in,” Gang explains.

The animated RockEd founder narrated how the group began reaching out to the youth through lectures with solo artists like Noel Cabangon and Paolo Santos. In the process, and as more and more people got to know about their group and the causes that they continually push for, the interest grew further until they were able to expand into a bigger arena.

“Nung una photographers lang, ngayon may film makers na.  Now we also have a radio show (RockEd Radio on NU 107), and a partnership with GMA-7 for a webshow regarding the (2010) elections. Parang we have become an alternative source of news, so naiba rin ‘yung ‘itsura’ nya (RockEd),” Gang says.

“I think the natural evolution of Rock Ed is that now we are now a media group. I think we are a volunteer media group of young ones who are on the ground. That’s why I think the word ‘journalist’ is very overused, but is very accurate,” she continues.

Shaping the group's character
As someone who is very zealous about what’s happening in the society, Gang says that she conducts herself as a “journalist,” which in turn helped mould and influence not only RockEd’s causes but more especially its identity.  “I go to press conferences and write my own article; para akong mag-isang dyaryo.  I really felt like a journalist with no boss, without an editor,” recounting how she drove out to the Senate of the Philippines at 3 a.m. to witness the press conference of ZTE whistleblower Jun Lozada.  “Kung ‘yung EDSA ay sa GMA at ABS-CBN, parang ‘yung RockEd is doon sa mga eskinita ng Mandaluyong. With that we can push ourselves to have the same standards as with journalists,” she tells.

Despite all the changes that the group went through in the last five years, Gang says that they still have their eyes fixed on their ultimate goal.  “Ang pinaka-goal lang naman talaga ng RockEd is to make the otherwise apathetic private citizenry more nation-involved. ‘Yun lang!”

RockEd Philippines, though having such a very patriotic and unselfish agenda in mind, only set a ten-year series of alternative projects that will last until 2015.

“The reason why we need to wrap up after ten years is because when 2015 comes, everybody involved in Rock Ed would be on their 30s or 40s, and by that time we should have other plans and more concrete projects,” Gang explains.  “The teenagers of 2015 will have other ideas on how they will run their movement, what matters most to them, and which avenues are interesting for them,” she added.

However, Gang assures that though RockEd, which will stage another event this Sunday, December 6, in eight MRT stations (entitled “Rock the RILES”) to call for justice for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre, will eventually bid goodbye as a movement, the causes that it support and the projects it pioneered will still be in place to help improve the lives of ordinary Filipinos.

”Book Bigayan’ (an annual RockEd project) is a constant, perpetual book drive. At the end of the semester and the school year, we collect books and distribute it to further flung public schools.  So my dream is that ‘Book Bigayan’ will eventually become an NGO.  Hopefully there will be an executive director and it will be able to function as a traditional NGO with a focused plan and one task.”  She also noted the same for “Rock Bakuna,” an annual series of concerts and fund drives for vaccination projects.

“As a movement, Rock Ed Philippines will disband, but its projects will still go on,” Gang assures.