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.