RODOLFO VILLARICA, who is called the “Father of the Philippine Internet,” gave a very interesting speech last night during the Philippine Internet Commerce Society’s 5th National E-Commerce Congress and Exhibit, which was also a celebration of the 13th anniversary of the Internet in the Philippines.
Villarica recounted the chain of events that eventually launched the Philippines into cyberspace, and paid tribute to two individuals who gave invaluable support but whom he had previously failed to acknowledge for their role in making this dream a reality.
Villarica also hailed the efforts of the late Ricardo Gloria, the former education secretary who played a key role in bringing the Internet to the Philippines.
Here’s a video clip of Villarica’s speech from our YouTube channel.
Villarica, a Cebuano, quipped that even as Ferdinand Magellan discovered Cebu, Cebu brought the world to the Philippines via the Internet.
Hmm, 13 years of the Philippine Internet. Let’s hope that won’t prove to be an unlucky number, heh. I’m not superstitious — are you?
September 9th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Let him claim that he is the father of internet…well I’m the grandfather “Bill” of them…then waht for?…
March 25th, 2007 at 1:11 am
Phoenix: If were actually invited to the party, you’d know that we refer to Dr. Torres as the grandfather of the Philippine Internet.
Of course, we don’t invite n00bs like you to our parties.
March 25th, 2007 at 1:08 am
this author always feed either overhyped or exaggerated information!
Shut up, epal. We at PICS dubbed Dr. Villarica the Father of the Philippine Internet. Joey merely filmed Dr. Villarica at our party. Get your facts straight.
March 21st, 2007 at 11:45 am
this author always feed either overhyped or exaggerated information!
March 19th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
I think we really should not get in that who is the father of this game. Nobody can really claim that. Personally I have been using in manila BBS with those awfully slow modems. That was back in 1988. used the ibm with their microchannel architecture (cost around 180000 pesos then) if i remember those guys at creekside (amorsolo) were selling the modems for 10k or more. If i remember the network was up and about already. Anybody remember mosaic? before netscape? how about alibaba (not the site)? COAX to network ur win pc and novell was king? Just reminiscing.
Come to think of it I was in Albuquerque NM when Bill gates and his friends started microsoft (ms dos) and sold the os to IBM
Let’s give credit where credit is really due. And that it is the collective effort of the Filipinos , not just one, not just a school , but everyone back then who saw the need to ride the wave of information technology.
March 19th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
DR. WILLIAM “BILL” TORRES is the father of Philippine Internet. As I recall, Dr. Bill Torres worked alongside with the late Dr. Willy Gan in setting up the first ever ISP in the Philippines - MOZCOM. They have also pioneered the DOST project in making Internet accessible to the Filipino people. LET US GIVE WHERE CREDIT IS DUE.
March 19th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Was he one of the guys from the consortium of universities that worked on the net.
What made Cebu the birthplace of RP’s first net connexion? USC techies may also have been the first guys to release viruses into the net. Pastilan!
How about the CyberPhil gurus who were first in EBBSs that used the UUCP connexion on the Fidonet backbone somewhere?
History of Philippine net? I recall Jim Ayson and Vic Reyes lecturing on this many years ago. Btw, what happened to PDI’s Third Wave writers, one of whom I taught how to use the net and who got to places because of that?
Hahaha
March 19th, 2007 at 9:43 am
magellan discovered the philippines? hhmmm
a fallacy that is…even up to now. Magellan arrived in Cebu, he did not discover the island since people were already living there
March 19th, 2007 at 9:14 am
When the internet was just starting to become popular world wide, I was getting my online fix through the now defunct COMPUSERVE. They started implementing a crude way to get an internet emails and WWW access through their service. That was around 1994-95.
I don’t remember Villarica being part of any of that.
March 19th, 2007 at 8:52 am
I have read an article before stating that William “Bill” Torres was the Father of Philippine Internet? So who is the real pioneer?
March 19th, 2007 at 12:16 am
Paano naging Father of the Philippine Internet si Mr. Villarica? Anong grounds?
AFAIK, the ADB whose headquarters are in Ortigas has Internet connection as early as 1991 or 1992? So kung paunahan lang, iyong guy na nagconfigure sa ADB should be the father of the Internet.
March 18th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Reacting a bit to the comment above, I’m pretty clueless who this guy is. Exactly why is he considered “the Father of the Internet in the Philippines”? What did he pioneer? I’m really curious and I want to know before I digg or blog this entry. Thanks!
March 18th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I demand a thorough and unbiased genetic test on this! Ok, I just finished reading this 5,000? words article: dated March 26, 2001 published Computer World Phil. Am sold out, he’s really the father. but those network techs and engineers also deserve credit.too By golly, those CISCO 7000 routers is heavy to lug from place to place and configure. If he is the father, let Him be. besides, he’s a cebuano. I don’t want SOME out there in the caves of PalawaN suddenly pops out of the blue, and claims HE is the father.It’s been a long time since then. I was able to FINGER some User at USC cebu,,back then in 1994/95?. No Websites in Living Color nor Music then…Just text, text and more text. At one time, I used the original *WWW* web_browser built by the inventor of World Wide Web himself: Tim Berners-Lee;then, graduated to using LYNX. Mmmm, how time passes..almost barely unnoticed,
March 18th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
that magellan discovered the phil is a fallacy…
internet technology is a finished product imported in the phil. to claim that someone fathered it would be tantamount to pointing a star and claims it as his own (which reminds me of the short story entitled “little prince” discussed in our humanities class)!!!
i just wonder why we still have the worst internet connection in that part of the world…
March 18th, 2007 at 1:43 am
I remember Al Gore’s “I invented the internet” quote.
March 17th, 2007 at 8:52 am
First of all, I would like to thanks those people who brought Internet in our country. It has a long process before a man can proclaime that he/she is a father of this and that. To prove this it should be supported with reliable and genuine documents. Well in my opinion, the Father of Philippine Internet maybe referred to as the Pioneer of Philippine Internet. Please correct me if Im wrong.
March 17th, 2007 at 2:45 am
[...] Joey Alarilla, who took this video of Dr. Villarica’s speech, hopes thirteen doesn’t turn out to be an unlucky number. I do not share that hope. The thirteenth year of Philippine cyberspace, the year twenty million Filipinos go online, will bring apocalyptic amounts of bad luck — to n00bs. Share This Close [...]
March 17th, 2007 at 1:31 am
It’ll be unlucky for n00bs.
March 16th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
can we refrain from calling people —- father of this … cebu brought the phils to the internet … even among techies, we cant seem to run out of politicians — who claims that “this internet is the project of Villarica, a Cebuana”. Self-referencing is a disease. Let time be the judge of that.