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Into The Web Wilderness
Domain-name grab now a guerilla tool
Dial-in David conks telecom Goliath in Filipino Web war
By Marites Dańguilan Vitug
Unlike Meg Ryan in "You've Got Mail" and Sandra Bullock in "The Net," I don't get fast, smooth and easy access to the Internet all the time. I sat in awe as I watched these two women effortlessly enter the world of cyberspace. In our neck of the woods, e-traffic can be heavy at certain hours of the day - busy signals are all I get.
A decades-long monopoly, the telecommunications industry only opened up here in the early 1990s, and it has not caught up with the quality of service offered by our neighbors, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
The main value of cyberspace for me is e-mail. I cannot imagine living without it. But surfing the Net I can do without. It takes a lot of time and it can grab a chunk of the budget. (A monthly bill can reach $50 for 85 hours of use.) On the few occasions that I meander through cyberspace, I am obliged to do so to dig up information for stories I'm working on. Beyond these, a spot in this vast space must be outrageous and different to attract my fleeting attention. And, well, one Web site has done just that. It is brash and wild. It likes to stoke controversy and poke fun at authority. It is raucous and irreverent. It is Filipino.
Pldt.com partly jolted me when rows of electric-blue skulls set against a black backdrop filled my computer screen. "Torturing Lives" the caption read, followed by a note: "Crony-free site. We guarantee it: No looted money used to create site."
Pldt.com is a parody of PLDT-all caps or the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, a telecommunications giant here. Formerly owned by a rich Filipino family with strong political connections, PLDT is often complained about because of its erratic service. When it announced its plan to meter calls, more consumers howled because the change meant higher phone bills - especially for Internet users.
This was enough of a trigger for Gerry Kaimo, a consumer activist and businessman, to lead a cyberspace protest against the company. Kaimo hijacked the name PLDT, and in July 1998, he bought the rights to pldt.com from the US-based Network Solutions, which registers Internet addresses around the world. Thus began Kaimo's guerilla-style opposition to the metering of calls.
So if anyone clicks on PLDT, chances are he is led to a site that heaps vitriol on the phone firm. "PLDT: Clearly for Cash" and "Torturing Lives" come into view instead of "PLDT: Clearly for You" and "Touching Lives," the firm's Hallmark-like slogans.
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PLDT.COM webmaster with Xanana Gusmao, as featured in The WorldPaper article. |
In a landmark case, the firm sued Kaimo and wants the Web site shut down. The case is still unresolved.
Meanwhile, pldt.com has expanded. It not only attacks PLDT, it makes fun of President Joseph Estrada, and former First Lady Imelda Marcos, a favorite in the over-the-hill category. The site provides running commentary on issues of the day-never bland, never cautious - from the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, coveted by various countries in Asia, to the millenium bug. Even Chechnya is not too far away for this Philippine dot-com, which issued a warning to Russia "to pull out of Chechnya." Completing the site are cartoons, a discussion board and legitimate news from select regional and local newspapers and magazines.
Here's a sample barb from the site's Jan. 4, 2000 edition:
IMELDA: STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS?
Imelda Marcos today announced that she was buying out all intellectual rights to the Y2K millenium bug from Japan. "Somebody's gotta do it. Might as well be me," Manila's present-ex-future-directress announced. "Besides," she claimed, "I've always liked their zippers." As of press time, no comment was available from the rest of the world.
The site, of course, has been hot on the unprecedented case. (PLDT has demanded $33,750 in damages). Pldt.com runs detailed stories on the court hearings and interviews with Web master Kaimo. For him, it's a matter of asserting one's right to free speech. For PLDT, it's as straightforward as trademark infringement. The lawsuit has only increased the Web site's popularity. Surely, it has its share of detractors. "Unsavory material… a mockery," wrote one irritated newspaper columnist. Another called the people behind the site a "bunch of real baddies."
To me, they look more like a bunch of high-energy, obsessive, cyberspace-loving citizens who, with an arsenal of words, are fighting the mighty they believe treat them unjustly. The thing is, they're having fun! Work and play have seamlessly meshed in pldt.com. Not surprisingly, the site ran away with the "People's Choice" award in the humor category of the annual Philippine Web Awards last year.
The site is amusing, especially because it takes on a big-shot firm with an attitude.
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Marites Dańguilan Vitug is The Worldpaper Associate Editor for Southeast
Asia.)