By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Since he first started blogging in 2003, Filipino singer and composer Jim Paredes can still recall the thrill of putting his thoughts in cyberspace and getting quick responses from people.

“It’s as if the Internet was my nervous system and cyberspace was my barangay,” Paredes said as he described his feeling when he first started blogging.

Paredes, who migrated with his family to Australia in 2006, has been known for his music and compositions, his career on Philippine television, and his being a member of the APO Hiking Society, a singing group composed of Danny Javier, Boboy Garrovillo and himself.

“I’ve been blogging since 2003. I felt the need to express myself outside of my usual venues like music, recordings, TV, etc. I also discovered I like talking to a world audience and receiving quick reactions and feedback,” Paredes said.

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A fake blog (see above screenshot) supposedly written by former Senator Ralph Recto has emeraged even if he has not even assumed his position as director general of the National Economic Development Authority.

His staff said the blog is nothing but “black propaganda,” as one post indicated that those who did not vote for him were “stupid.”

INQUIRER.net reporter Veronica Uy has the story here.

A quick check on the domain “ralphrecto.com” showed that the domain has been created sometime in April 2005. The registrar of the domain is “Blue Razor Domains.” The blog is hosted in the US.

MAKATI CITY, Philippines – Filipino bloggers and students visited the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last week to try their hands on the automated systems that will be used in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections in August.

Led by the Bloggers’ Kapihan, 20 students and bloggers participated in mock elections, where actor Pierce Brosnan won as regional governor for ARMM over mock candidates Kevin Costner, Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Al Pacino and Sharon Stone, according to Comelec’s blog.

Vanessa Redgrave won as regional vice governor, beating Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Tom Jones, Jennifer Lopez, Brian McKnight and David Pomeranz, Comelec added.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Editor’s Note: Updated and clarified quoted statement.

The Philippines’ first Wordcamp Philippines, a boot camp for free blogging platform Wordpress, nears, according to organizers.

Led by Mindanao-based bloggers, the Wordcamp Philippines aims to bring both users and developers of the Wordpress. It also aims to bring together Filipino enthusiasts using this platform for the first time.

According to this blog, the Wordcamp Philippines is scheduled to happen on September 6, 2008 at the College of St. Benilde in Metro Manila.

Wordcamp Philippines is organized by Mindanao-based bloggers Oliver Robillo, Maria Jose, Migs Hipolito, Winston Almendras and Andrew dela Serna.

Various Wordcamps have been held in the US and other parts of the world because it has become popular platform for web publishing.