Saturday, December 1, 2007

The Filipina Writing Contest

A couple of months ago, we were outraged by the FilipinaBride.Com, which is supposedly a spoof for the international perverts-or-hopeless con romantics who use the internet to look for their Filipina subjects.

While concerned groups have been successful with soliciting support and a couple of reactions from Filipinos, there weren't much efforts gathered for eliminating the "Filipina bride" impression of many on Filipino women. Most actions were geared towards the site owners; they were attacks to specific groups or individuals like the pervs that I was talking about in the first paragraph. None of them countered the real enemy: the negative perception of the Filipina.

Fighting this enemy is a big challenge. This is mainly because we are dealing with individual psychos...err... I mean psyches as well as a whole bunch of social constructions which have long been a mainstream for a significant number of ignoramuses.

Last August, another social barrier has been broken; another line has been crossed for the Filipino women. Janette Toral's brainchild, The Filipina Writing Contest, has the following aim:

"... to influence and change the impression about the Filipina by having relevant content appear in the first page of major search engines."

There were around 80 entries to this campaign and the awarding was held last 28 November 2007 at Ponciana's Kitchen along Timog Avenue.

Now ladies and gentlemen, the winners:

The judges' Most Liked Entries and won US$100 each.
The Funniest Filipina Vloggers
Ako si Pina.. At ito ang aking kuwento...
Superiority of Women in the Philippine Society

US$100 Winners in the raffle:
Filipina as Other (Betsy's!)
Two Popular and Unique Individuals, Both Filipina
The Filipina Campaign (Aiza's! Birthday gift!)
Filipina 2007

For the SEO competition part, the following won US$100:
Google -
Filipina (marhgil's)
Yahoo -
Filipina (marhgil's--lucky, lucky guy na nagrereklamo pa!)
MSN -
Hindi lang Filipina Dating, Dating Filipina, Wow Filipina talaga!

For thoseShortlisted entries' prizes:
One (1) Customized Banner or Button (Thanks
Juan Karlo Licudine!)
Filipina Pride
Three (3) Wordpress t-shirts for entries with link to our partner FilipinaImages.com (Thanks Noemi Lardizabal Dado!)
Filipina Ako. I am a Filipina
A Topless Filipina in Europe
Maria “Ria” A. Jose is a Filipina
Two (2) Strategic Problogging Audio E-Book (Thanks Manuel Viloria!)
Filipina Since Birth
Story of a Young Filipina Woman - The Fighter in Me
The following got a one-year individual membership in the DigitalFilipino.com Club.
A Different Filipina
Proudly Pinay: The Filipina Who Strut on Her Heels (wow! this IS mine!)
Macho I Love Yous
The Filipina in the Eyes of the World
Adobong Pinay
Ang mga Filipina ng Buhay Ko
Filipina works! Abroad
Podcast/Vlogs creation effort
Hot Filipina
The Portrait of a Japayuki as a Filipina
Google Suggested Pinay Scandal
What is a Filipina?
3 Things You Possibly Do Not Know about the Filipina

Congratulations to all (since I think everyone won a prize in the raffle)! And of course, congratulations to Ms. Janette!

To know more about the project, click here.
To know more about the winners and sponsors, click here.

6 comments:

  1. I saw the update about the project here! thanks for sharing... I will be doing the same in my blog! :-)

    I'm over at:

    http://www.sinigang-dmeemai.blogspot.com/

    have a good one!

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  2. LOL! talagang noted pa na nagrereklamo ako. hehehe

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  3. Hi eam!

    Thanks. Will drop you a visit. =)


    Hi marhgil =) hahaha! dapat lang nuh!

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  4. I agree, there is a lot of negative perception about Filipinas. It is up to the good people to stand up and reject behaviour like this.
    http://hospitalscams.blogspot.com/

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  5. And these good people must stand up against one enemy, TIMOTHY ELLIS CUMPER aka ELLUMBRA. Just like what these people did:

    http://filamforumreport.com/2008/02/17/philippine-hospital-scam-exposed-as-a-hoax/
    http://jepoy.bengero.com/2008/02/hospitalscamsblogspotcom-severe-case-of.html
    http://filipinaimages.com/philippine-hospital-scam-tierra-maria-estates-scam-exposed-as-hoax/
    http://liveinthephilippines.com/americanlola/2008/02/01/the-%E2%80%9Cforiegner-money%E2%80%9D-problem/#comments
    http://yourpinoybroker.com/tierra-maria-estates-scam-exposed-as-hoax/
    http://lalaine.gameops.net/2008/03/foreigners-deeply-inlove-with-filipinas.html
    http://npf007.multiply.com/journal/item/84/hospitalscams.blogspot.com_Severe_Case_of_Psychosis
    http://www.siopaomaster.com/2008/03/foreigner-needs-psychological-treatment.html
    http://jepoy.bengero.com/2008/03/official-statement-from-mr-francis.html
    http://filamforumreport.com/2008/03/03/philippine-hospital-scam-hoax-victim-speaks-out/

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  6. hi fellow-blogger,
    I must admit I am still a newbie in the blogging field and one more admission, I was surfing for info about a superficial topic such as the Mikaela product, but I guess I was destined to read your post about the Filipina Writing Contest - perhaps they should hold a contest for Pinays who are just simple bloggers? It was pure illumination and I ended up posting one about this valuable cause on my site: redjamjar@blogspot.com
    thank you for helping me think more outside the box

    Perseverance
    aretessence@gmail.com
    (let me know how you fared with the product, I brought a couple of the Mikaela home to Sydney)

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