Join Rappler’s AI and elections forum, voter empowerment workshops in Batangas

MANILA, Philippines – As disinformation continues to spread in the provinces, how can ordinary citizens take part in ensuring their localities are well informed on issues on the upcoming 2025 Philippine elections?

For the second stop of the #AmbagNatin roadshow series, Rappler is heading to Lipa City, Batangas, from November 28 to 29 to conduct election-based activities in partnership with anti-disinformation coalition #FactsFirstPH and the Department of the Interior and Local Government-Calabarzon through its Local Governance Resource Center.

This is part of MovePH’s series of roadshows in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao aimed at engaging communities in promoting information integrity and voter empowerment in their localities. MovePh is Rappler’s civic engagement arm.

The roadshow also aims to gather and train future Movers, Rappler civic engagement volunteers, to write community-driven election stories that will be amplified by Rappler.

Anchored on Rappler’s call to action for the upcoming elections, the roadshow series is themed “#AmbagNatin: Championing facts for an informed choice.” The series will have three stops — Iloilo City, Lipa City, and Iligan City — where public forums and hands-on workshops will be conducted, with a focus on the 2025 elections, voter empowerment, and civic engagement.

The roadshow will feature a public forum on the importance of verified information and a vibrant information landscape, especially during the elections. During the public forum, participants will hear from Rappler journalists and local newsrooms about how information integrity can affect election outcomes. There will be a panel discussion about ways to work together to ensure voters are protected from AI-powered disinformation.

 During the forum, participants will also get to interact with Rai, Rappler’s chat bot designed to relay, in conversational format, information vetted by journalists.

This public forum will be held on November 28, 9 am to 12 pm, in Lipa City, Batangas. 

*Please refresh this storypage for the updated venue. 

Slots for the public forum are free, but seats are limited. All attendees will also be asked to download the Rappler Communities app, a news and community-building app that uses generative AI for journalism and civic engagement. Register here or click the button below:

Please register through the link above on or before Tuesday, November 26, 8 pm.

Be a Mover and join our workshops on civic engagement

Aside from the public forum, the #AmbagNatin roadshow will offer exclusive training on journalism for community-building through a series of hands-on, interactive workshops for interested Movers or volunteers for Rappler. 

These workshops will engage 20 local community leaders, journalists, and youth in a community dialogue on local issues, and interactive learning sessions and activities. Specifically, these will run from November 28, 1 pm to 5 pm; and November 29, 9 am to 5 pm. During these sessions, participants will learn more about fact-checking, reporting on local issues, creating effective multimedia content, and utilizing social media for civic engagement.

As part of the selection process for these workshops, interested participants must pitch an election-related story from their locality and commit to cover community issues during election season for Rappler. Following the training, participants are expected to pursue stories based on their pitches, with support from Rappler.

A total of 20 local community leaders, journalists, and youth in Batangas will be selected. The criteria are as follows:

• At least 18 years old and based in Batangas province
• Good writing and communication skills
• Basic knowledge of short video production preferred
• Journalism or video production experience a plus
• Interested in doing community-driven journalism
• Must have a solid pitch of an election-related story from their locality (can be text story or multimedia execution). The story pitches can cover any of these: profiles of local candidates running in their city/province, stories about community issues that local candidates must address in their platforms, comparisons of platforms of key candidates in their area, among others.
• Must be willing to help Rappler cover community stories during election season. These community stories can be similar to the ones indicated above.
• Must also attend the public forum conducted during the morning session on November 28.

Food and snacks will be provided to those selected for the workshop.

If you’re interested in joining these workshops and becoming a Mover, please submit an application here or click the button below:

Deadline for workshop application is on Saturday, November 23, 11:59 pm. Those applying for the workshop should also answer the form for the public forum.

Applicants will be screened by Rappler. They will all be notified about the status of their applications by November 27.

For any questions or concerns, email move.ph@rappler.com. – Rappler.com