Officials to be bombed
by 'Erap resign' e-mail
By Joey G. Alarilla
Inquirer.net

VIEW COPY OF E-LAGDA PETITION

TODAY, one government official will be surprised to receive thousands of e-mail calling for President Estrada’s resignation.

This, at least, is the plan according to organizers of the eLagda online movement at www.elagda.com. After gathering over 91,000 signatures in 21 days, the online signature campaign will now shift to the eMandirigma (eWarrior) phase, said eLagda moderator Vicente Romano III. Petitioners will simultaneously "e-mail blast" one target entity a day starting tomorrow.

Romano told the INQUIRER that between 22,000 and 23, 000 members of the online movement’s mailing list at eGroups have committed to participate in the targeted e-mail campaign. Ideally, this means that each day, an Estrada supporter would receive thousands of e-mail at almost the same time.

Though saying that his group has already compiled a list of the e-mail addresses of senators and other government entities still supporting Mr. Estrada, Romano declined to name the first target. He said that he would e-mail the target entity’s address and a suggested message to eLagda supporters later tonight or early tomorrow.

"We have the list but we are still deciding who to target first. Part of it, of course, is the element of surprise," Romano explained.

The eLagda campaign had initially targeted to sign up a million Filipino Internet users in 21 days. Though the number of signatures gathered has fallen short, Romano said that the results are already significant.

"I believe so. In such a short time, to generate 91,000 signatures is significant," he said.

He added that the group plans to extend the signature campaign for another 14 days, even as they begin e-mail blasting the target entities.

Some critics have said that the e-mail blasting might be illegal or unethical because it might be tantamount to e-mail bombing, flaming or spamming.

The explanation posted on the site, however, claims that "it is not spamming since spamming is one person

sending an unsolicited message to millions. Neither is it flaming since flaming is one person barraging one address with multiple e-mails. What we have is a one-person-one-email directed to one entity everyday."

While the latest tally at the site is 90, 790 signatures, Romano said in the mailing list that the latest batch of e-mail addresses had not yet been processed due to preparations for the ceremonial transmission of the electronic petition to Mr. Estrada.

On Tuesday morning, Romano said about 400 eLagda supporters gathered in front of the Philippine Stock Exchange to participate in the ceremonial e-mailing of the petition. Augusto Lagman, chair of information technology firm Systems Standards Inc. and immediate past president of the IT Foundation of the Philippines, e-mailed the petition to Mr. Estrada at erap@erap.com using a laptop computer.

The eLagda petitioners also took to the streets to join the stock brokers in the anti-Estrada rally in front of the PSE in Ortigas, as reported in GMA-7's Saksi news program.