Dear Philippine Internet,
Hope this letter finds you and your users well amidst this pandemic. On behalf of the 73.91 million Filipinos (the number of online citizens in the Philippines as of 2020), allow me first to greet you a “Happy 27th Birthday!” today.
I can still vividly remember the very first time I went online in cyberspace at Universe Cyber Café in Park Square, Makati City – I was in my third year of High School then. All I wanted to do was send an email to a childhood friend who immigrated to Australia years before. After ordering an iced coffee, I asked to be seated in front of an Internet-capable computer and the attendant fired up Netscape Navigator – the very first web browser I encountered. I immediately entered my friend’s email in the address bar and nothing happened. I was like that for a good 60 minutes or so, trying to figure out how to send an email message – without knowing that I needed to have my email account. I ended up paying PHP250 for the coffee and 90 minutes of Internet usage (at PHP1.50 per minute), plus my own Yahoo! email address.
A few days later, I bought this HTML How-To book at National Bookstore and painstakingly learned how to create webpages using Notepad on my Intel 486 PC.
Few weeks after my first Internet experience, my dad asked my help in responding to several emails sent to their office using Eudora. I actually ended up creating their business’ first webpage (it was just a single hand-coded HTML page with a couple of GIFs and their company logo). The feeling was so awesome!
Over the first few years of Internet in the Philippines, I learned how to chat on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and surf the World Wide Web (still using Netscape as much as possible). Made quite a number of online friends, while joining online contests and stuff. Not to mention that I met (the) Jim Ayson(+) in person – the very first netizen I EB’d to claim a compact disc (CD) I won from PhilMusic.com.
Fast forward twenty-seven (27) years, today. As Filipinos try to survive the pandemic, now more than ever, we realize the real value of being connected to the Internet. From being in a work-from-home setup to kids are doing homeschooling, I cannot imagine how we will manage to have some sort of normalcy without social media, streaming websites, and other stuff we consume using the Internet today.
But, with issues related to fake news, misinformation, and disinformation plus a couple of cybersecurity and privacy concerns hounding the global information superhighway, how can we bring the awesomeness of the Internet and the Web back to when they were originally conceived?
My wishes on your birthday are for Filipinos to finally have a better Internet that puts people first so that they can shape their own experience and be empowered. For Filipinos to have an Internet that is considered as a public resource, open and accessible to all – not to mention an Internet that is fast enough for work-from-home and homeschooling needs. For the citizenry of the Philippines to have an Internet that is safe and independent.
Mabuhay ang Philippine Internet! Happy birthday, Philippine Internet!
Your Pinoy Fan,
Robert “Bob” Reyes