NOTES

18 October 1997

Manila Bulletin claims that their Internet edition averages 200,000 hits a day. If you ask me, I think it's a bit of a stretch. But then again, recent estimates put the number of Filipino Web users at around 150,000--and I'm sure most, especially those overseas, tend to read the latest news first before moving on to private pursuits--so perhaps the Manila Bulletin claim is not that much of an exaggeration. In fact, Philippine Star, in response to my query regarding the "hard transfer limit reached" message we all get (often right in the middle of reading Teddy Benigno's or Art Borjal's column), claims that their server can accommodate only up to 30,000 visitors at a time. Users thus get the dreaded message when that limit is reached. If that explanation is true and since it seems to happen throughout the day, we're talking about a really huge audience. Even assuming that each visitor spends an average of a leisurely one hour reading the paper, that's a daily readership bigger than the anti-Charter change rally.

On the other hand, Yehey--the Philippine version of Yahoo--claims to average only about 1,000 hits a day. As one of the major Philippine-oriented Internet directories, you'd think that most Filipino users visit the site once or even twice a day.

A thousand? Two hundred thousand? Seven hundred twenty thousand? Who really knows? From my own limited data (culled from recent visits to this site), there are 78 users from the Philippines and the rest of the Far East, 30 from the Australia-New Zealand time zone, 85 from the U.S. and Canada, 25 from Europe, and 3 or 4 from Burundi, Africa.

If you have any information or data leading to a more accurate estimate of the number of regular Filipino Web users, please get in touch.

Webmasters whose pages generate less than tens of thousands often take comfort from the fact that some (preferably many) visits do not actually register. For example, pages are often cached for a period of time so, unless they are reloaded, the visits may not be recorded. Some browsers may also be set up to load text only, so hit-counters are bypassed. In addition, most Web sites have only one hit-counter, which is usually on the main page, so visits to the other pages are not counted. Having said all that, I can now claim with daring, juvenile aplomb that Philippine Political Update generates a definite minimum of 200 plus hits and a potential maximum of hundreds of thousands per day.

Macapagal-Arroyo must have received an invaluable political advice from her late father. Among the presidential aspirants, she is arguably the most barangay-oriented. When Diosdado Macapagal was still Garcia's VP, all he basically did was visit the barrios. By the 1961 elections, his political network spanned the breadth and width of the archipelago. Despite the Nacionalista Party's dominance in Congress (77 members versus the Liberal Party's 27), Macapagal won the presidency. A combination of outstanding pedigree and extensive grassroots work similar to her father's single-minded strategy has brought Macapagal-Arroyo to the front of the presidential pack.

As a major contender, she will be the object of vicious political intrigues. Her candidacy may also be adversely affected by a serious Magsaysay candidacy. Note that Magsaysay has an even better pedigree--who hasn't heard of Ramon Magsaysay? He also has a strong background in economics (Harvard MBA). The sort of people who would normally vote for Macapagal-Arroyo may thus consider supporting Magsaysay instead. Interestingly, while Macapagal-Arroyo dropped by about 3 percentage points in the last SWS survey, Magsaysay moved up from virtually nothing to almost 3 percent after he formally declared his interest in the presidency.

Assuming that the administration does not adopt Macapagal-Arroyo as its presidential candidate, a Machiavellian way for the administration to undermine her current advantage is to somehow promote, perhaps secretely fund Magsaysay's candidacy while pushing for the election of its own official candidate--be it De Villa, De Venecia, or Osmena. With the Catholic church expected to launch an anti-Estrada campaign soon, the rating of both the two consistent leaders may further drop toward the middle teens. That will be good for the administration candidate and, of course, for Santiago who seems able to keep her solid 14 percent Ilonggo/youth vote. Roco--if he is able to maintain his momentum--may pull a surprise too.

I hope to feature interviews with the presidential candidates in this site soon. Having included a "Mud-Throwing/Negative Issues" section, it's only fair to give the accused the chance to respond to allegations as well as to allow them to present their candidacies in the best light possible.

People often get what they expect. By raising the aspirations of a nation through education (formal or otherwise), higher standards are inevitably met. This is why the Book for the Barrios project makes a lot of sense. An intelligent, well-read nation is unlikely to put up with widepread poverty and social decay. Check out their Web site--BOOKS4RP. Perhaps you will see the wisdom of "rising from poverty, one book at a time."

Comments?

mbionat@msn.com