We just survived and continue to grapple with supertyphoons Ondoy (Ketsana) and Pepeng (Parma) that snatched hundreds of lives, destroyed property and livelihood and took the issue of climate change to the very center of our conversations with family, friends, classmates, colleagues.

That it was caught unprepared to mitigate the effects of the rampaging floods is the government’s lightest offense.  The worst is that it apparently ignored serious warnings raised in 2007 when an international study found the Philippines as the No. 1 victim of climate change in the previous year.

We cannot be apathetic or cynical. We as a people have the solemn duty to accept the reality of climate change, to study it, and to take a stand.

Bloggers Kapihan thus calls on Filipino bloggers to take time out on Oct. 15  to post your thoughts and aspirations, frustrations and hopes, photos, videos and stories, on climate change and how it affects our family, community,  country and the globe, and how we wish to make things better.

If you wish to join this event, write a post on climate change on Oct. 15 and place a link to this post. You may also spread the word about Blog Action Day by placing this badge on your blog:

To grab and post the badge, use this code: <p style=”text-align: center;”><a href=”http://www.bloggerskapihan.com/2009/10/08/blog-action-day-2009-pilipinas”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3489/3992612044_5a154d68a2.jpg” alt=”" width=”180″ height=”150″ /></a></p>

Together, let’s make the Philippine blogosphere take a stand on climate change — along with bloggers around the globe.

Endorsing organizations:

• TXTPower
• Kabataan Partylist
• Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment
• Agham
• Computer Professionals Union
• Philippine Climate Watch Alliance

Supported by:

• The Ink Squad
• Brotherhood of Destiny

If your organization wishes to be included in this list, please leave a comment.

• To pre-register, download this form and email it to pinoycitizenjourn@gmail.com — the event is totally free.

• To get a map of the venue, go here.

Seminar speakers are: Prof. Danny Arao (UP Journalism Department and columnist for Pinoy Weekly) for an introduction to Citizen Journalism; Tonyo Cruz (blogger and journalist) for Technology and Journalism; Iris Pagsanjan-Estrera (GMA7 News and associate producer of Saksi) for news writing; Rowena Carranza-Paraan (NUJP and PCIJ) for features writing; Sine Patriyotiko (SIPAT) for videography; and Jimmy Domingo (photojournalist and coordinator for the Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism photojournalism program).

The seminar is brought to us by Pinoy Weekly, College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), AGHAM-Youth and Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU) in association with the Philippine Reader.

Special request to our friends in the blogosphere: Please support this initiative by:

1. by registering now and attending the seminar
2. by reposting this
3. by putting the seminar icon in your blog and linking it to the seminar site

The event website is at http://blogactionday2008.bloggerskapihan.com/ where Bloggers Kapihan posted instructions and resources for interested bloggers.

“On Oct. 15, we urge bloggers to unite and discuss poverty. It may be an essay, a story on how they may once be poor or their fears about falling to the ranks of the unemployed. It may also come in the form of a video or a podcast,” said Bloggers Kapihan crew member and journalist Anthony Ian Cruz, who publishes the blog http://tonyocruz.com, this year’s best news and media blog in the Philippine Blog Awards.

Cruz said that the Blog Action Day 2008 is open to all bloggers, regardless of age, gender and creed. “We urge bloggers to take time out to change the discussion and focus on Oct. 15 on poverty. Its a good chance to tackle poverty – its root causes, the solutions, and why we should put our heads together to have a poverty-free Philippines in the future.

University of the Philippines Manila debater Benjamin Espina, another Bloggers Kapihan crew member, said that “we bloggers represent the technological intelgentsia of this generation and events like the Blog Action Day empower us to amplify our pro-active stands and novel ideas across a wider readership.”

Espina, whose http://atheista.net won as best personal blog in the Philippine Blog Awards, added that “these types of activities help us capture the spotlight so let’s make the most out of it by writing about causes that all people should care about, like poverty”.

Another Bloggers Kapihan crew member, Philippine Science High School instructor Martin Perez, won the award for best single blog post in the personal category.

In its call to action, Bloggers Kapihan said that “poverty is a reality that we cannot deny. We see it everyday. Many live with and in it 24/7. The imperative now is to change this situation. The Blog Action Day 2008 is an opportunity to get poverty out from under the rug where the government has consigned it. We hope that through this renewed focus on poverty, it will be a new start to better understand and not hide it, to offer real solutions not fake ones, to salve the poor people’s wounds and not give them doleouts.”

According to Cruz, the group expects “a good number” of Filipino bloggers to answer the call for poverty-related posts. “We hope to infect the so-called intelgentsia, the thinking class who are all over the web, with a concern for the plight of the numerous poor and be interested in helping solve it. The event would then hopefully spur national reflection and action on poverty.”

The Philippines is now known in the world for its vibrant and dynamic blogosphere, with even journalists and Catholic bishops, government officials and opposition leaders taking on the habit. In one of the polls on social networking, Filipinos lead all Asians in blogging and in setting up social networking sites.

Non-bloggers may also join by posting comments at http://blogactionday2008.bloggerskapihan.com/, said Cruz.

Bloggers Kapihan launched its first Blog Action Day event in the weekend of Jan. 19-20, with the theme “remembering People Power 2″.

This year’s edition takes on the issue of poverty, a reality we face every single day. On Wednesday, let’s take on this issue by blogging (or micro-bloggin) about it through text, audio, video or photos. You decide how.

Our poorest countrymen — the minimum-wage earners, the farmers, the unemployed and underemployed, the minorities et al — deserve to have their voices heard because their problem is our problem, their redemption is ours too.

More info at the Blog Action Day 2008 Philippines blog.

MANILA, Philippines – Priest-turned-governor Ed Panlilio launched his blog this weekend to promote good governance.

With help from the Bloggers’ Kapihan, a group of Filipino bloggers, and his own people in Pampanga, Panlilio initiated his virtual conversation with constituents and the youth.

Read the full news article here and Erwin’s personal thoughts about it here.

Alternatively, click here to view the album.

Find Among Ed’s blog here.

Photo credits should go to Bloggers Kapihan/Mark Baul.

Here is another slideshow (from Tonyo and Juli):

Shari also posted photos here, here and here.

At the moment, I won’t link to these bloggers and their posts (because I’m sure you know them and they know themselves). What is important for me is to say that the Pinoy blogosphere aristocracy are just behaving as expected: aristocratic and elitist. Some would cry “repression!” only when its their own voices that are being muffled or muzzled. Some would gladly lay down a virtual red carpet for their own online writing projects on Philippine issues, but would demean the efforts of others. At other times, these clowns cry for “democracy” when all they really want to say is “listen to me only” or “listen to me first”. Some are fans of a near-total absence of online accountability. As to the threat of repression, the question of the need to fight repression is set aside by insinuations that the new ones may be inviting harm all by themselves (ain’t that the same “blame the victim” outlook which they also detest in posts elsewhere).

The entire post is at TonyoCruz.com.

In his sharing with bloggers, Ocampo stressed that “Filipinos are not frustrated over People Power 2, but with the dismal and disappointing regime that came to power.”

He said that the source of frustration is that “People Power 2 was a fight against corrupt and immoral governance, but we were given a worse government by the very persons who composed the new government.”

Ocampo said that the “if ever People Power resulted in bad governance, we cannot blame the people who took part in the uprising. It remains an alternative way of instituting change.”

“People Power as a concept is always relevant,” Ocampo said, adding that “It remains a mechanism for people to express their sentiments when institutional processes fail them.”

The discussion was “liveblogged” on http://bloggerskapihan.com and on Twitter for the benefit of those who were not able to attend.

Cristina Palabay, who was president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines during the 2001 uprising, said that Arroyo completely ignored the “youth agenda” that was presented to her when she was still vice president and in the middle of the then-raging anti-Estrada protests.

Using a photo presentation, Palabay recounted the various contributions of student and youth groups to the ouster of Estrada but said that “almost everybody will agree that we were all betrayed by Arroyo when she became president”.

Palabay said that young people and the public did not expect some of those who joined the anti-Estrada marches and demonstrations to “turn into demons worse than our enemy then” referring to Arroyo and those who were later absorbed into her cabinet.

Bloggers Kapihan crew members Ederic Eder of Tinig.com and Tonyo Cruz of TXTPower also joined the discussions, relating the use of texting, chat, and websites in efforts to unseat Estrada.

Jester-in-Exile, who donned his jester’s hat, stressed the participation of unorganized professionals who went to Edsa in 2001.

The discussion closed the Blog Action Week that urged bloggers to write about People Power 2.

See some photos at Penguin Tales.

More photos to be uploaded on my Flickr account tomorrow.