hours too late would have spelled a big difference in the outcome of the revolt.
             Clearly, information technology (IT) is dramatically changing the landscape of Philippine politics. Political dynamics will never be the same after Jan. 20.
             There was no weapon more lethal at EDSA than the cellular phone, said political analyst and UP sociology professor Randy David in a recent interview. "We did not have that in 1986," he said referring to the first EDSA revolt that freed the Philippines from the nearly 20-year dictatorship of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos.
             Short message service (SMS) -- or simply "texting" -- over mobile phones is credited for the fast mobilization of people in EDSA just a few hours after 11 pro-Estrada senators muzzled a move by the impeachment prosecution on the evening of January 16 to present evidence that would have linked former president Joseph E. Estrada to billions of dollars worth of a bank account, and possibly to irregular business transactions.
             Executives of mobile phone service providers estimated that text messages per day sent after that day suddenly jumped to about 70 million to even 100 million -- two to three times the normal daily volume.
             But that was just the culmination of more than two years of using IT tools for political purposes. The Erap (nickname of Mr. Estrada) jokes that were passed around through e-mail and text messages before were slowly transformed into an exchange of political ideas
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