SENATOR Manuel “Mar” Roxas II was the keynote speaker at Media Nation, which was held in Clark, Pampanga and which I blogged about while the event was ongoing.

He quipped that it was hard to be the keynote speaker when you’re the last one to give your speech — and the one keeping people from having their dinner, heh. He also joked that he felt a bit like being led into the lion’s den, since the event was a gathering of a virtual Who’s Who in Philippine journalism (in my case it was probably more like: “And this is one of our editors, Joey Alarilla.” “Who?” heh), with major print, TV, radio and online publications represented. (On a more personal note, it also became a mini-UP Tinta reunion for me as Dodge Dillague, formerly of GMA 7 and now a director at ABC 5, and Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter Alcuin Papa, are my orgmates.)

What’s funny is that the senator said he would like to start his reflection on the state of political reportage in the Philippines by talking about hope, and then alluding to the Hope controversy, heh. OK, we all saw it coming, but it was still good enough for a few laughs.

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES footage of senatorial aspirant Anna Dominique “Nikki” Coseteng of the Genuine Opposition answering questions from INQUIRER.net executive editor and Infotech editor Leo Magno during the recording of the Eleksyon 2007 podcast, which is still ongoing as I’m blogging this.

WE are about to start recording an upcoming episode of the Eleksyon 2007 podcast, with senatorial bet Anna Dominique Coseteng of the Genuine Opposition as our guest.

Click on the thumbnail for the full pic. Photo courtesy of Jayvee Fernandez.

THANKS to all those who have posted comments and sent e-mail in reaction to the transformation of @play into a blog, or to give feedback on previous column pieces. I apologize if I haven’t been able to respond to some e-mail messages yet because of my backlog.

Here are two reactions to my then column piece and now blog entry “Greenpeace vs Vista, media vs the PR machine.”

The first is from someone in the public relations industry — name and e-mail address withheld upon request:

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I’M fascinated with the possible impact of the Internet on the Philippine elections, and that’s one of the questions I’ve asked candidates whenever I field questions in the Eleksyon 2007 podcast. In the US, of course, the Internet has been playing an increasingly important role.

Case in point: the campaigns of the two most popular Democrats who would like to become their party’s presidental candidate Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

We’ve also seen the self-destruction of powerful politicians such as Virginia Senator George Allen, who was thought to be a cinch for reelection before the infamous “Macaca” controversy that was caught on video and made the rounds on YouTube.

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