PLDT Would Like to Call a Halt to Ranting on This PLDT Web Site
By James Hookway
Staff Reporter

MANILA - Filipino telephone customers can check the rates or ask about their bills on the Internet. But they have to make sure they call up the right Web site. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. is the country's dominant phone company, but if customers click on www.pldt.com, they'll be greeted with this message  "Not one word...on this entire site may be copied...without the author's written permission if you or anyone you know are connected in any way with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, its lawyers, and/or other similarly offensive members of a bottom-feeding species."  Welcome to the other PLDT the Philippine League for Democratic Telecommunications Inc., or PLDTI. 

Founded by record producer Gerry Kaimo, the site was started last December to protest the phone company's now-delayed plans to meter phone calls. "We just wanted a way to rant at PLDT's lousy policies," Mr. Kaimo says. 

But ever since the company started legal action in September to close the renegade site and collect 1.1 million pesos ($27,025) in damages, Mr. Kaimo and his ragtag band of consumer watchdogs have been a cause celebre in the Phiippines.

The site is now a counter-culture rallying point, its message board full of anti-establishment broadsides and spoof reportage. One recent item outlined former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos's supposed plans to buy a plot of land in Manila large enough for her to relocate the Eiffel Tower.

It's all been too much for the original PLDT, which missed out on the www.pldt.com domain name and instead had to set up shop at www.pldt.com.ph. One Friday evening, Mr. Kaimo was hit with a subpoena to appear in court the following Monday. PLDT Executive Vice President Antonio R. Samson says, "It is an unlawful appropriation and use of the PLDT trade name and a legitimate defense of a 71-year old company's good name."

Says Mr. Kaimo "I kind of freaked out when the case came. It was like Pearl Harbor; they attacked without warning." He made the comments at a party last week to celebrate winning a Philippine Web-site award, an award ironically sponsored by PLDT.

Now he's on the offensive. His lawyers have launched what he calls his Y2K suit against the company - for 2,000 pesos in damages. Of course, he's also looking to recoup his legal expenses, so he's filing claims for 50 million pesos.

Meanwhile, at the party, Mr. Kaimo is handing out beer vouchers, and local student volunteers are selling pldt.com T-shirts. A prankster grabs the microphone and announces that PLDT Chief Executive Manuel Pangilinan is sorry that he won't be able to attend.

(right-hand corner, 
front page, 12/13/99)