If anything, I’d like to be the first to offer my humblest apologies for whatever ill will you may have against me on whatever I had to say about Jun Lozada’s blog launch at Filipino Voices. I think it would be out-of-taste for me to write a response to Tonyo on my own blog, so I’d rather do it here as a comment. If you will…

Don’t get me wrong: I welcome Mr. Lozada’s presence in the blogosphere. I don’t give it as much enthusiasm as you guys do, and I hope that doesn’t offend anybody. It’s just that I don’t see why his blog launch should be treated with as much fanfare and publicity. I don’t really know, although I would really like to know, why. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just that blogging didn’t use to be this way.

I hope I didn’t make such a big mistake in contributing to what Tonyo calls an “insipid aristocracy,” though I don’t really know if that exists. In all honesty, I’m not. I’m just a kid trying to make a difference; it may be a different opinion, but so be it. People will disagree with what I have to write about, and that’s part of the game. That’s what freedom of speech is. Not only the freedom to speak, but also to engage in dialogue. That you’ll just have to talk to somebody with a completely different stand, a completely different opinion, and you’ll have to stand for that, and at the same time stand for your own opinions as well.

All of a sudden – and PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong because I’m hoping I’m not right – the Philippine blogosphere has turned into an exclusivist enclave of glorified social networks, with gatherings, kaffeeklatsches, and income generation thrown in. I hope I am wrong.

Whatever happened to the little blog that roared? Whatever happened to The Blogger? Whatever happened to opinions and thoughts – not personalities – that shake the very foundations of what we always perceived to be “fundamental” and “unassailable?” Whatever happened to the blogger who would be willing to sacrifice Technorati hits and Entrecard points for the sake of having that one idea that will change everything?

My only hope is that I get to meet at least one blogger in the Philippines who’ll do that.

Thank you, and I hope to meet you guys one of these days.

HTC,

Marocharim