The power of social media during natural calamities

Two calamity-specific hashtags have been adopted after Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (international name: “Ketsana”): #RescuePH, which is used when someone needs rescuing or has knowledge of someone in need of rescuing; and #ReliefPH, which is used by social media users themselves in need of or have information on individuals and/or communities in need of relief goods and services. The hashtag is also used as a catch-all for updates on relief aid provided.

Netizens created these two hashtags in 2012 at the height of the habagat (southwest monsoon). Mass media used these hashtags so much that people started using it to call for help. According to Rosario Juan, #RescuePH became the first institutionalized practice of a unified hashtag for disaster response. All media agencies agreed to use it because the Presidential Spokesman’s Office told them to. I took part in this meeting for a public and private sector online coordination during the postmortem meeting of Typhoon “Ruby” (“Hagupit”) in 2014. Organized by the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, we agreed on unified hashtags for easier dissemination of information and coordination. Present in this meeting were government agencies, members of the media, netizens and nongovernment agencies. Before starting the meeting, I recalled then-Presidential Communications Undersecretary Manolo Quezon warning us to set aside political differences, since some of us were critical of President Benigno Aquino 3rd, including myself. An output of that meeting led to a “Social Media Style Guide during Natural Calamities” aside from defining government and media roles.