About

FilipinoVoices.com is a collaborative blog of Filipino bloggers. Focusing on politics and society, especially in areas of human rights and civil rights.

It was started on April 1, 2008. It was the natural progression in The Philippine Blogosphere as more bloggers have focused on the state of affairs of The Philippine government, the growing social concerns, as well as a hope to contribute to progress by providing relevant views and opinions represented in articles on the current issues of the day.

FilipinoVoices.com is more than a blog, it’s a start to the growing power of The Filipino to manifest his own destiny in the online world, which hopefully will have an impact on the physical and more tangible world we live in. Words are powerful and we the bloggers of FilipinoVoices.com know this to be the true power of this blog.

The Bloggers


Abe N. Margallo was once expelled from all schools in the Philippines for leading a student rally. Fortunate to be reinstated, he went on to graduate from law school after serving as editor of the college law review. At 25 he started teaching constitutional law while engaged in corporate law and litigation practice.

Semi-retired after a long stint in banking and financial services, he now likes to teach special ed students, write a column for New Jersey-based “Filipino-Asian Bulletin” and blog at Red’s Herring. Abe’s parting words in Build or Perish!, a book he has authored (and published by UST) reveal his enduring trust in Filipinos’ People Power:

Today, the high spirit of EDSA is beckoning anew. And whether we answer to flesh it out—and answer we all must—as Tsinoy, Tisoy, Pinoy or Amboy, and as Taipan or Mang Pandoy is really of no moment, if we believe we are all Pinoy-rin.

We know this as the liberating instruction of People Power. So, every Filipino, and anyone committed to the deeper tides of democracy, must keep on deferring to its wisdom, well beyond and into the next and more arduous chapters of nation building.

ArbetArbet W. Bernardo is a half-Chinese/half-Filipino (in alphabetical order). Born in Manila, he currently resides in Caloocan, and works in Mandaluyong as a technical writer.

With a degree in Computer Science, he first started as an instructor for a technical school before starting his career writing about technical stuff. Currently, he blogs at AWBHoldings.com, discussing current political and social issues in the Philippines if he is not writing about tech-related stuff. He also likes Japanese pop if he is not listening to the classics.

benign0 — ‘heckler of the politically-passionate’ — was born, raised, and educated in Quezon City then
moved to Sydney in 2000. His Website GetRealPhilippines.COM was born in a hotel room while on an out-of-town assignment. It was inspired by the numerous Erap Resign! websites that proliferated the
Web at the time.

benign0 is convinced that the way forward for the Philippines does not lie in politics, but in a deep,
systemic overhaul at the very fabric of Filipino culture and society.

Having conquered Web activism through the written word over the last eight years, he is now honing his skills as a producer of short videos and publishes them through his YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/benign00.

Butch Dado is the owner of thewarriorlawyer.com, he is a forty-something lawyer based in Makati City, Philippines. He started blogging on August 2006 and mainly writes about politics, law, life in general, death and various aspects of the human condition, as seen through the jaundiced eye of a guilty bystander.

Chuck is a veteran Information Technology professional with almost two decades experience in the Industry. He is currently based in Singapore. He blogs at The Placeholder.

Cocoy is a twenty-something Mac user, and technology geek who enjoys a good cup of Coffee and New Media. I believe in neoliberalism. I also believe that sometimes, politics should stop at the water’s edge. I hang out at twitter (http://www.twitter.com/cocoy).

Cocoy blogs at Big Mango - Technology. Politics. Opinion.

Fernan Guzman Gagelonia or Ding, has been a working journalist since age 13, having begun as a junior TV reporter for pre-martial law ABS CBN.

Went on to work in TV news and public affairs as writer and program producer for various networks. He also had stints with the Philippine Broadcasting Service as director and has the honor to work with the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication. He has also served as Commissioner, representing the Office of the Press Secretary, in the UNESCO National Commission for the Philippines (UNACOM) as well as having had the privilege of handling media affairs for former vice president Tito Guingona, who remains a dear friend, apart from other political figures.

He now writes independently and does corporate communications consulting. His own journalist blog is midfield.wordpress.com,

J of The NutboxHi. My name’s J. I’m currently on my second year taking up BS International Relations major in Diplomacy at the Lyceum in Manila. I served as managing editor of our student paper for a year and a half, before I stopped studying and worked abroad late 2006.

I went back to school late 2007. Currently, I serve as a varsity debater for the Lyceum. I love geopolitics, and I write about it most of the time. My goal is to share my enthusiasm on the subject, and to make it cool to others who find it too geeky. I also would like to challenge the notion that as a Third World country, the Philippines is totally without leverage in geopolitics.

My personal blog is The Nutbox.

I believe the Philippines is full of potentials, and I advocate full utilization of these potentials by our government. I want the Philippines to stand on its own feet and be subservient to no one, for I believe it is a way for different peoples to respect the Filipino, and for the Filipino to respect himself.

The Jester In ExileThis is the blogger known as the jester-in-exile: a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines, of Ilocano stock, born and bred in the Cordilleras in the midst of a colonial heritage only a Baguio denizen can truly understand.

An engineer by training and profession, the jester-in-exile is back on campus working towards a law degree. Like many others who have grown up in the eighties and nineties in Baguio City, the jester-in-exile aspires to be a Renaissance man; complementing his love for science and technology is a deep appreciation of literature, music, art, and culture, and his interest in history, politics, and society is in keeping with his passionate belief in the Philippines and his countrymen.

His personal blog is The Journal of The Jester-in-Exile, and he keeps several other blogs on standby for his attempts at writing (where one can find the story behind “the jester-in-exile”). When not at work, in class, online, reading a good book while enjoying a coffee, or having a cold beer with friends, the jester-in-exile may be found trekking on a backwoods trail, or with his leathers strapped on and riding his motorcycle as far away from the city as he can.

Jon Limjap is a software developer and is a part-time entrepreneur. He started writing about political issues in college with the Filipino-language Ang Pahayagang Plaridel of DLSU-Manila. An admitted internet addict, he has gone by the monicker LaTtEX since the early 2000s.

Despite having several opportunities to work abroad, he has decided to stay in the country instead, trying to crack the code to prospering in a “problem-ridden country” while taking advantage of the law of supply and demand within his chosen industry.

He has also grown tired of hearing everyone point out what the problems are and prefers listening to people who come up with realistic, doable solutions.

While he has been blogging on and off since late 2003, his permanent online home has been Ang Kape ni LaTtEX since 2005.”

Juned Sonido is the blogger behind Baratillo @ Cubao: Baratillo.net. The following is his own description of himself: Short in stature and wide in girth, he is culturally the sum total of the consecutive rule of the Spanish Friars and the Conquistadors; the American Thomasites and the Tammany Hall Politicians; Ferdinand Marcos and his New Republic or as was known in the vernacular Bagong Lipunan; And Sesame Street. A Martial Law Baby and a participant in an episode in Philippine history called Edsa One, he is Jaded but hopeful. He thinks he has become Sancho Panza, who is the literary grandad of Benjamin the Donkey in Orwell’s Animal Farm.

He currently resides in the hills of Cubao just a few blocks from a shopping mall with nice cinemas, nice restaurants and a crowd of people from the A to D crowd. And he likes the place: Wow na Wow sa Cubao.

Lester Galvez Cavestany is truly and deeply in love with the Philippines. Can we really blame him? Can we really blame someone who was required at school by the state to recite the Panatang Makabayan - a pledge of allegiance he took to heart. Evidently, among his favorite lines were, Iniibig ko ang Pilipinas, ito ang aking lupang sinilangan… Tutuparin ko ang tungkulin ng isang mamamayang makabayan at masunurin sa batas… Paglilingkuran ko ang aking bayan nang walang pag-iimbot at nang buong katapatan… Sisikapin kong maging isang tunay na Pilipino, sa isip, sa salita at sa gawa.

I know you can also relate to Lester Cavestany’s desire to serve our country. So let’s use our minds, our hearts, our voices and our hands as we unite and fulfill our promises to our beloved Inang Bayan.

Lester is a teacher and an aspiring writer. He blogs at LesterCavestany.com

Manuel BuencaminoManuel Buencamino is a columnist for The Business Mirror. He writes political and social commentary. He is also involved with the Action for Economic Reforms (AER) which was founded in 1996 by a group of progressive scholars and activists in the Philippines.

On the blogging side of things, he can be found at his virtual home, Uniffors.com - Life In Gloria’s Enchanted Kingdom where you can find the rest of his writings, views, and opinions on matters of the day.

Marck Ronald RimorinMarck Ronald Rimorin, known as Marocharim in blogging circles, is a 22-year-old writer who, by training, is a social scientist. Marck writes from Internet cafés, raids second-hand bookstores for good finds, and loves drinking Coke and San Miguel Pale Pilsen.

Marck believes that his own writing sucks, and takes his political cues from his college days at the University of the Philippines Baguio. He was heavily influenced by books, professors who don’t like him, cigarette breaks with friends who are sometimes afraid of him, and small talk with tired taxi drivers. He has a very big problem with “wavelength,” for he is forever dissecting and complicating issues like a frog in Biology class. In real life, Marck can talk about everything from politics to culture to The Backstreet Boys to FHM cover girls. He doesn’t know how to eat pasta.

Marck has been blogging since 2004. He blogs at www.marocharim.com. Some of his earlier can be found at http://marocharim.blogdrive.com.

Martin Benedict Perez of AKOMISMO, is currently a Social Studies Teacher at the Philippine Science High School, Main Campus. His students call him Sir Martin, but you can call him Martin. He has been teaching for four years, and is also eyeing a career in public policy.

His blog, AKOMISMO was born in the 6th of January 2007 when he finally outgrew his Livejournal. Blogging grew out of my passion for writing, and pretty soon it evolved together with his teaching. Hib blog has long been transformed from being a repository of his thoughts and writings into becoming a second classroom for his students.

AKOMISMO is coined from two tagalong words, ako and mismo. Together they translate roughly to “I, myself”. This title encapsulates his philosophy in life: that our destinies are ours to shape, and that it is only through the mastery of the self that we can be initiators and cultivators of positive action in the world. The philosophies of Taoism and pragmatism reinforce my belief.

Nick of TingogNick is as passionate a Filipino as you will ever encounter. He lives on political and social news, and often writes about these topics as well. His personal blog is at Tingog.com which he started in 2006.

He is an engineer by trade. He is a Filipino-American, but 100% pure blooded Filipino.

He is a Cebuano, from Cebu of course. He loves Filipino food. And he loves Filipino women. He hates politicians who take advantage of the marginalized for political gains (which is almost all politicians).

He plays guitar, pool, golf, chess, basketball, and badminton. He hates small talk.

Patricio Mangubat is a pseudonym. It means “country fight”. Yet, the one behind this name is real.

His background can be briefly described as a long-time activist, communication strategist. He started his career as a broadcast journalist and ended as a Strategic Communications Expert. He graduated from the University of the Philippines-Diliman with Masters, and briefly studied law at Ateneo de Manila University.

He was also a part-time professor of History at the University of the Philippines-Manila and Dela Salle University. He also taught Mass Communications at Dela Salle University-Cavite and is now working for a big firm in Makati after spending years working in Singapore.

Patricio blogs at The New Philippine Revolution, where you can get the pulse on the latest issues in The Philippines and Asian politics.

Rom Sedona: “I used to be a fish with blue dots, but then I fell in love with a word and we ran away to make sentences and paragraphs and the occasional anemone. In time I lost my fins and, being tired of flopping around on dry land, decided to get some legs. I got a cigarette instead and have since been content.”

Rom blogs at Smoketalk.wordpress.com

Schumey of The Philippine ExperienceSchumey is an idealist who will not sit idly by, while his country is ravaged. (the following is added by Nick) A long time political blogger, he has been at the forefront on the issues with respect to other Philippine political bloggers. His passionate writing is why his blog, The Philippine Experience continues to have an avid reader base. He remains anonymous, but his views and opinions are out there for all to see.

Sparks is a professional student who dabbles in languages, politics, philosophy and the moot and very academic. She blogs at {Caffeine_Sparks}, where you can read many of her past commentaries. You can also catch her podcast at {sparks_podcasting}.

Contributors

  1. Annalyn Jusay, of Manila Bulletin
  2. Felix P. Muga II, Associate Professor, Mathematics Department, Ateneo de Manila UniversitySenior Fellow, Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
  3. RG Cruz, of ABS-CBN. He’s a journalist and a blogger, covering many political news and issues of the day.
  4. Thea Alberto, of Inquirer.net