Winners of Pitik Bulag’s ‘Illustrating Elections’ Contest

In a vibrant display of artistic talent and civic engagement, four artists emerged as winners in the ‘Illustrating Elections’ Comics Strip Competition, organized by Pitik Bulag in collaboration with #FactsFirstPH and Move PH, with the support of the Google News Initiative.

The competition, held from February 14 to 24, 2025, challenged participants to create an informative comic strips focused on empowering voters to make informed choices in the upcoming 2025 Elections. Participants were required to submit their entries on public-art chat room of Rappler communities app.

Timothy Andrei Milambiling emerged as the first place, with his comic strip titled “Hindi pribilehiyo, kundi kakayahan na dapat ibahagi.” He is a 4th-year journalism student from Polytechnic University of the Philippines – College of Communication and is the current chief cartoonist of Assortedge.

In his description of the winning entry, Milambiling wrote: “In recent Philippine elections, social media platforms have become the center stage for political aspirants to court the trust of Filipino voters. Unfortunately, there is also an observable crisis on voters’ education and media and information literacy (MIL) in the country. Not every Filipino social media user is equipped with the aforementioned skill, thus susceptible to misleading content and would likely to lack a concrete stance on voting preferences. Therefore, it is a must that those equipped with voter education and MIL educate others in their own way so that everyone will make an informed choice for a better future.”

Comics strip by Timothy Milambiling

Secured second place with “Ayuda o bitag?”, Fiana Jiecel Mondonedo depicted how Filipinos can be manipulated by greedy politicians using broken promises, deceptive words, or money. She is an artist and a first-year college student at the University of Cebu – Main Campus. She is part of the Lakandiwa student publication as a senior staff cartoonist.

The comics strip of third placer Cesar Camba underscored the significance of voting wisely for the people’s future.

Received a special distinction for garnering the most of public chat reactions, this work by Andrei Justin V. Topang (nicknamed as Sulo) introduced the acronym LAPIS (Lider, Angkop, Panindigan, Itsura, at Serbisyo) as a guide for informed voting. He is a Grade 7 student from Florentino Torres High School and a three-time division schools press conference qualifier.

This competition not only aims to provide information and crucial context but also empowering Filipino voters to make informed choices. #AmbagNatin

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