MANILA, Philippines – For the first time in the Philippines, a newsroom and a city council used generative artificial intelligence (AI) to gather public sentiments about a public policy — a proposed ordinance to declare Tomas Morato Avenue car-free on Sundays.
Rappler, through a partnership with the office of Quezon City Councilor Irene Belmonte, hosted four virtual public consultation sessions on its aiDialogue platform and news app in August.
Around 250 people were able to join the sessions, in total. Over 1,400 responses were sent in by participants, which were counted and then summarized by the aiDialogue platform, generating a final output for all four sessions.
All participants answered five main questions which were formulated by Rappler and the office of Councilor Belmonte, who is behind the proposed ordinance and who represents the city’s Fourth District, which encompasses Tomas Morato Avenue and nearby barangays.
The questions were based on issues that came up during Belmonte’s first public consultation about the proposal.
The five questions, written in Filipino on the aiDialogue platform, were:
- What should the government do to make a car-free Tomas Morato Avenue ordinance acceptable for residents and stakeholders?
- Which of these two options do you agree with: car-free on Sundays, 6 am to 6 pm; car-free on Sundays, 6 am to 10 am then 4 pm to 6 pm? Do you have other suggestions?
- What can the government do to address concerns of business establishments, their customers, delivery riders, workers in the area?
- Should the entire Tomas Morato Avenue be car-free, or just one part?
- What are your suggestions to address the needs of persons with disabilities (PWDs) and senior citizens?
The aiDialogue platform then asked a follow-up question, based on the responses given, for each of the five questions above.
The virtual sessions took place on August 21, 24, 23, and 26.
All the sessions were conducted on Rappler’s aiDialogue platform, which participants could access through laptops or gadgets, as long as there was internet connection. All participants were anonymized, known only by an avatar with an animal name generated randomly.
All participants could see the responses sent by others in the session. They could also view the summary of responses to each question, as generated by the AI platform.
At the end of the roughly two-hour sessions, the platform posted a final output — a summary of all the responses to all questions — that all participants could read.
Rappler is currently collating all the summaries for all four sessions and will submit a final report to the Quezon City Council. Rappler will also be publishing a news report about this on our website.
Initial responses
A majority of participants believed the provision of parking areas near Tomas Morato Avenue was the most important course of action the city could take to make the car-less Sundays proposal acceptable. If traffic management and other aspects of the ordinance would be well-implemented, a majority would support the ordinance.
A majority believed only a part of the major thoroughfare should be car-free, not the entire stretch. A majority believed the car-free period must be from 6 am to 6 pm, not the other option presented (6 am to 10 am then 4 pm to 6 pm).
There was strong consensus on suggestions to ensure the cleanliness of the street, the provision of bike lanes and bicycle parking, to ensure public transportation drop-off zones were close to Tomas Morato Avenue, and accessibility features like ramps and even surfaces be implemented for PWDs. There were suggestions to provide free shuttle services for PWDs, the elderly, and other visitors with mobility challenges.
There were also suggestions to plant more trees, install more benches, and hold events like fun runs, zumba sessions, bazaars, and concerts during the car-free period.
These are just initial results. Rappler will publish a complete report.
Can deliberative technology work in the Philippines?
Deliberative technology is the use of digital tools, hardware, or software for public discussion of public policies and to encourage citizens to participate in deciding on government proposals.
Can it work in the Philippines, once known as the world’s social media capital but also a country where millions live in poverty and corruption is still widespread?
The Rappler-Quezon City project showed how it could be done, and what challenges deliberative tech would face in a Philippine urban context.
One predicted challenge was internet penetration, the availability of gadgets, and the level of technological savvy of communities around Tomas Morato Avenue who would be directly impacted by the car-free ordinance.
“An online consultation also allows us to reach more people, although there are more barriers here, because what I observed while volunteering is that many of our electorate do not have access to technology,” said Alyssa Belda of the Make It Safer Movement, who volunteered to assist participants during two sessions.
But she pointed out that the decision to hold one of the assisted sessions on a Saturday helped ensure a diversity of participants.
“Hopefully, this will also empower our citizens to propose or initiate what developments they would like to see in their community,” said Belda.
A majority of participants joined the consultation through the assisted virtual sessions held jointly by Rappler and Quezon City.
These sessions involved Rappler and Quezon City staff being physically present in two barangay halls — Barangay South Triangle and Barangay Obrero — and providing laptops, smartphones, and Wifi for participants to join the virtual sessions.
A total of 233 people registered during these two in-person events, largely mobilized by the local government. Rappler staff and volunteers then assisted the attendees. In some cases, especially for attendees who were not used to gadgets, Rappler staff and volunteers read out the questions and then typed in what the attendees said in response directly into the AI platform.
Due to the large number of participants, relative to the Rappler staff and volunteers, participants had to wait in line, or answer in groups of two or three.
There were also some delays caused by slow internet connection and some bugs in the platform.
Despite this, the platform was able to collect over 1,400 responses. These include responses from participants who joined remotely and did not need to go to the two barangay halls for assistance.
“Hopefully, this will also empower our citizens to propose or initiate what developments they would like to see in their community,” said Belda.
The crowdsourcing news app
To facilitate this AI-driven public consultation, Rappler made use of its app, Rappler Communities, a first-of-its kind news app with chat rooms.
Rappler created a chat room dedicated to the project. People who wanted to join the public consultation were instructed to download the app and enter the “Tomas Morato Consultation” chat room. The chat room was then used to send announcements about the upcoming sessions, and the link to the AI platform during the sessions.
The chat room is also where Rappler will announce the publication of our article on the full report on the public consultation.
Councilor Belmonte, in an interview with Rappler, emphasized why they found it crucial to expand the reach of their public consultation through this partnership and the use of AI.
“It will help a lot in terms of crafting the ordinance or improving this ordinance, and hopefully we can gather more information from citizens on how we can improve this ordinance,” she said on April 16.
For Belda, who has attended many consultations between civil society and government, public consultations may be difficult and painstaking, but it’s a “necessary process in a democracy.”
“Our government must innovate in how they conduct these consultations, and collaborating with media is a step forward. In my opinion, this might even empower our local media outlets even more — especially for issues that are community-based,” she said.
The car-less Tomas Morato Avenue proposal could set the precedent for other major streets in Metro Manila to become car-free as well.
“It will be a landmark ordinance. If we can do it in Tomas Morato, we can do it in some other street in Quezon City,” said Belmonte.
One rationale cited by the proposed ordinance is to reduce the city’s carbon emissions and improve air quality. Closing off Tomas Morato Avenue to cars would make a big impact, surmises Belmonte, because it is one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares, full of restaurants, bars, and other establishments that attract people, and their vehicles.
While the ordinance calls for only car-free Sundays, a relatively quiet day for the street, it’s a start.
Quezon City, Metro Manila’s largest city in terms of size and population, is trying to position itself as forward-thinking in terms of climate change policies. It is the only Philippine city that is part of C40, a coalition of cities all over the world committed to achieving the target of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a target set by the landmark UN Paris climate agreement.
Do you think your local government or community could make use of Rappler’s virtual public consultation project? Let us know by emailing community@rappler.com. – Rappler.com
Proposals to pedestrianize a street, or bar vehicles from passing through it, are ways some groups think help improve the quality of life in a city. Rappler has a dedicated space for stories and conversations about ideas like this. See our Make Manila Liveable page to find out more.