Cults, cliques, screens

Dragging the Philippines away from the brink of becoming excruciatingly predictable with the likes of Mother Lily and the Shake, Rattle and Roll franchise, was Ben Chan. It was Bench to the rescue with the atmospheric, exquisitely chic Richard Gomez, rowing away in the “Scully” ad of 1991, which was followed by “Saddle” a few years later. (Who cared about the crushing brownouts of 1990?)

PBA and Pacman

The other favorite category of “grown men thundering down a basketball court in their underwear” belonged under the heading PBA, for the Philippine Basketball Association.

In its heyday under Bobong Velez’s Vintage Enterprises, this “play for pay” league spawned the first of the multi-millionaire athletes in the form of Alvin Patrimonio, Jojo Lastimosa and Jerry Codinera, who also introduced the sport to a whole generation of colegialas. Alvin, in particular, would be one of the most stellar, earning kilometric titles as a four-time Most Valuable Player and an astounding 10-time member of the Mythical First Team. The public hysteria was so rabid that his love letters would make it to the frontpage news..

But it would be Manny Pacquiao who would cast the longest shadow. Pacman would reign over four decades of sports, from the 1990s to the present. He would be described as, “pound for pound,” one of the top boxers of all time. He was certainly one of the planet’s highest paid, reaping as much as a total of $1 billion from his pay-per-view fights — and would become a beacon (like Josie Natori) for that elusive thing called “Pinoy Pride.”

The internet cometh — and goeth

The internet officially, but quietly, arrived in the Philippines in March 1994, opening the doors for online “bulletin boards” and websites as media platforms. It was accessed, however, by a contraption called “dial-up modems” — yes, connected through the phone lines that decoded audio signals, thus the scratch and screech that heralded every successful internet connection.

There was a flurry of important movements in Silicon Valley — Yahoo had also been established in 1994. Also in the same year, Jeff Bezos would “found Amazon in his garage.” At the onset, it was merely a charming online market for books but quickly expanded to all kinds of stuff, from gee-gaws to pool tables, to caftans and children’s toys.

In 2015, Amazon rightly called itself a “disruptor,” another 21st- century term, for upending the norm.

Established shortly after was Google, which sprang into being as a tech company now best known as a verb for looking up facts and mapping out one’s life through its search engine and email.

There were losers and winners in this gung-ho age: MySpace, for one, which in 2005 was the largest social networking site in the world, once rivaling Yahoo and Google in number of visits. (Let’s not even talk about EasyCall and PocketBell, which for the young, were paging services that sent alerts using people’s phone numbers.)

The country would become slowly glued to other screens for cable TV, with the coming of Sky in 1990, Home in 1992 and Destiny in 1995. The point was just to watch blockbuster reruns on a service called Home Box Office (HBO), which everyone in Hollywood said would never succeed.

But in the Philippines, all the action was taking place on mobile phones. Globe Telecoms and Smart Communications would go head to head — and there was a time when it seemed that their marketing departments were speaking to each other only through salvo upon salvo of lavish full-page newspaper ads and giant billboards advertising the next big thing in services, entertainment, and music.

You might say their sponsorships would change the Filipino entertainment scene: bringing in foreign acts — from Linkin Park to The Corrs — several times a year, and contributing to the 1990s’ beginnings of internationalism.

Multi-Tasking and ‘Marimar’

In 1995 — alongside the arrival of Windows 95 — a curious term called “multi-tasking” began to appear in the world’s vocabulary.

It was a special time in Manila, with both Barbara Cartland and her radio equivalent of agony, “Uncle Joe D’Mango,” flourishing. (Barbara Cartland’s daughter, the Countess of Spencer, would become the stepdaughter of a real-life life princess, Lady Diana, an HRH until her death in 1997.)

Manila would go “Latino” beginning with the hugely popular series Marimar in 1994, going from peak to peak with the “Macarena” in 1996 and Ricky Martin in between.

The Asian financial crisis may have dampened the economy in 1997, but PinoyExchange was founded in 1999 and in its heyday would spread its wings to some 1.5 million members. It was a rudimentary form of social media and would introduce such words as “flamed” for outspoken criticism.

Wikipedia and Texting

Wikipedia happened in 2001 — but because internet services remained uneven, its impact had not yet impacted the Philippines. It was texting that was king.

In May 2001, said Michelle Lichauco in this very same paper, “More than 30 million text messages are transmitted daily, twice as many as in all of Europe. There are only over a million personal computers vis-a-vis the current population of 79 million Filipinos, according to the International Telecommunications Union.”

By contrast, “the Philippine Internet Service Organization estimates that there are 400,000 internet service subscribers in the Philippines. This includes a mixture of multi-user accounts, use of pre-paid internet access (and an oddity called ‘Internet cafés’ — think Starbucks without the actual P200 coffees).  Total number of users in the Philippines has been estimated at around 2 million or 2.5 percent of the population as of 2000.”

Lichauco further observed, “Cellular mobile phone services began in the country only in 1991 and since then, the rise in the number of subscribers has been remarkable. As against two million internet subscribers, there are 4.5 million mobile phone users in the Philippines, exceeding the three million fixed-line subscribers.

“The Philippines has become by far the global capital of text messaging, a feature of digital cell phones which has been ignored in many other countries. SMS has taken off dramatically in the Philippines because of the affordability of the service compared to expensive internet access on the computer. With the introduction of pre-paid accounts with no monthly fees or need for credit history, the service became even more affordable and accessible to people.” (At the time, texts were being charged at a peso per 150 characters. Can you imagine a time when you were also charged upon receiving a text — especially one from overseas? Those were the dark days before “unlitext” and “unlicall.”)

It was a matter of time until texting would not just be used to make appointments or send lovey-dovey notes. As early as 2001, Lichauco said, People Power Dos was staged with the help of email blasts, text spams and 200 websites marshaled to spread everything from “lighthearted jokes to a signature campaign demanding the president’s resignation.”

Time magazine reported that the volume of SMS jumped from 30 million messages a day to record levels of 70 million during the last days of the impeachment trial and EDSA 2.

But just three years before, in 1998, Nokia was the “best-selling mobile phone in the world.” Its operating profit, already an outlandish $1 billion in 1995, would rise a billion a year to top $4 billion in 1999.

A bite of the Apple

In the new millennium, Apple would finally begin to be taken seriously — but for computers and music. In 2001, it would introduce the iMac and the iPod, two brands that need no introduction.

In the same year, a curious announcement was made in the BBC: the launch of the first camera phone, which was thought to be as improbable as Dick Tracy’s walkie-talkie watch. Readers would write in the comments section that it would “have some news for teens shopping for clothes” and perhaps “to take photos of car accidents for insurance purposes.”

Nokia’s “bestselling mobile phone of all time,” the Nokia 1100, was still waiting to be created in 2003. In 2007 — when Apple would introduce a curiosity known as the iPhone (along with iTunes) — Nokia would still control half of all smartphones in the world and Apple would have a mere five-percent share. (Incidentally, the Android OS was being worked on stealthily at about the same time.)

Apple introduced their app store in 2008 but it was “putting the internet into the nation’s pocket” with the iPhone that would truly make the difference. (By 2018, Apple would make history by exceeding $1 trillion in value as a company.)

By the 2000s, the Filipino diaspora had become a tidal wave. The Philippine economy experienced a whole decade of growth from 2004 to 2013, leading to the rise of a visible middle class.

OFWs were no longer distant planets, orbiting in space from the First World. Thanks to connections forged by text and internet, remittances would become the lifeblood of the country.

International hybrids

Beginning with those balikbayan boxes — filled with the riches of another world — the families of the OFWs would next replenish the perfumes and designer purses, imported food and fashions that they had come to know and crave.

By the late ’90s, a growing internationalism dominated consumer tastes. Empires like Koalition Zoo, Sari-Sari, and Linea Italia department stores were collateral damage as the fortunes of behemoths SM Mall, Rustan’s, and Stores Specialists Inc. increased exponentially. SM advanced the concept of American-style malls that grouped hundreds of stores and fast-food outlets under one roof; while SSI scattered the world’s top brands across the city in free-standing boutiques. (Think not just United Colors of Benetton but also Zara of  SSI, Gucci, Prada, Hermès.)

Top Filipino retailer Bench expanded and brought in brands such as Paul Smith, American Eagle, Aldo, Charles & Keith and Korean brand Faceshop. Its Dimensione furniture shop brought in several brands like Fritz Hansen and Cappellinni.

In recent years Bench has pushed its "Love Local" campaign promoting a nationalistic mindset among shoppers.

Foreign retailers such as Mango that arrived in 1999 had an astonishing 34 stores in 2015. Its success would attract other giants such as H&M in 2014 and, just in this year, furniture giant IKEA.

There was an explosion of reality TV in the 2000s — from Survivor and American Idol to our very own edition of Big Brother. But there was also the Korean Wave or hallyu that happened. There was Endless Love, followed by Sassy Girl and Winter Sonata, which had its very own tours, to Boys Over Flowers till the worldwide success of BTS. From American freaks to Asian hybrids, Filipinos embraced all things Korean.

Korea taught us the value of “soft culture” — the power to persuade not through armed might but through subtle invasion through TV and films, food and fashion. One suspects it also made values such as love of country popular.

Books like Fashionable Filipina finally gave the terno its due and would become an important cultural milestone, culminating in the celebrity-swarmed annual “Ternocons” featuring Philippine designers who had also made good abroad, including the talented Lesley Mobo.

Budget airlines pushed not just international travel but a rediscovery of the country’s glories. Resorts throughout the islands blossomed such as in Siargao and Bohol, which both featured a more organic growth and a deeper awareness of nature and sustainable environments, both all-new concepts.

And yes, as the Department of Tourism slogan says, “It’s more fun in the Philippines.”

OFWS, BPOs, the rise of the middle class

By 2015, the UN said that the permanent Filipino emigrant population had reached 5.3 million — while our own government said that it had actually numbered double or 10.2 million representing a staggering tenth of our total population. It signaled that the diaspora had become a significant part of Filipino culture.

It was not just a new economy with a brand-spanking new middle class, it was a new value system that was both vocal and demanding. Filipinos were no longer the same creatures that stoically withstood a 20-year dictatorship, yearly floods and typhoons nor the crushing brownouts. (New Yorkers, for example, had been known to riot after just a few minutes of darkness.) 

More than just duty-free goods, or “branded” items, we wanted international standards of living: better roads, safer streets, fuller lives. When the “Tanim Bala” scandal of 2015 broke out, victimizing the OFW passenger, all hell broke loose.

OFWs, after all, brought in as much as $34 billion in 2018. It made the Philippines the fourth-highest recipient of inward remittances after India, China and Mexico, according to the World Bank.

But there was a second phenomena waiting in the wings: the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) company or call center began to take center stage in the 2000s (although the first one ever was established in 1997). A new generation, working in a different time zone, became the first customers of the 24-hour store. Marketing specialists called their obsessions the ‘Three C’s” — for coffee, cigarettes and (ulp!) condoms, auguring a new era of “free love.”

The total disposable incomes of both — the OFW and the BPO gnome — would create a housing boom like no other, with construction unable to keep up with demand, in particular, for the high-rise condo. Colliers Philippines data showed that as of end 2019, there were an estimated 130,000 condominium units across key business hubs in Metro Manila not only in Makati but also the burgeoning enclaves of Fort Bonifacio (now known as BGC) and the reclaimed Bay Area around Roxas Boulevard.

Facebook would be established in 2004, primarily for Harvard students; YouTube, in 2005, ironically put together by three very bored PayPal employees. Its video-sharing service would attract two billion viewers at least once a month — Gangnam Style sensation Psy’s single 2012 video alone would attract one billion views. YouTube would change hands to Google for a dollar for every one of those views, or a cool $1 billion.

Remember the first camera phone of 2001? Well, when it was merged with the internet — and photos could be sent not just over the email but through texts and other media — a sea change occurred. (A brief flirtation with “blogging” — now replaced by “vlogging” — was a sort of granddaddy to the social media experience.)

Instagram made all the difference. Wikipedia reports that while it launched in 2010, it attracted one million registered users in two months, 10 million in a year, and one billion as of June 2018. As of October 2015, over 40 billion photos had been uploaded.

Web-based communications would become even more evolved with Facebook Messenger (revamped from Facebook Chat in 2008), WhatsApp in 2009, and Viber in 2010, which allowed the exchange of photos, videos and word files apart from text messages. To make things even more interesting, Snapchat introduced disappearing pictures in 2011 and Viber brought in “secret conversations” in 2017.

Home-wrecking and women

These cloaking apps may have put a slight dent in home-wrecking (marriage-busting) texts, which popped up if you happened to accidentally read your spouse’s screen uninvited — but they did not put an end to the Philippines’ fender benders and traffic mishaps due to SMS-ing.

On 2018, a total of 117,000 car crashes were recorded just in Metro Manila alone. Of course, said the Philippine National Police, nobody ever actually admitted to texting while driving — in the same way a married man never admits to texting anyone else but his wife.  The politely termed “human error” excuse amounted to 90 percent of the reported causes.

Not surprisingly, romance novels — once the chief entertainment of females suffered a massive decline as women turned to Twitter and Instagram, and yes, Keeping up with the Kardashians, allowing the founding of the sisters’ huge cosmetic and lingerie empires.

Filipinas were becoming an economic force on their own, leading the country in college graduates by up to five percentage points for more than a decade according to the National Statistics Board. She was most interested in business administration while her male counterparts enrolled in criminology and information technology (IT).

Shockingly, one out of seven women reported having been subjected to physical violence, according to PNP statistics between 2012 and 2021. That situation may soon be righted: as of September 2020, a third of the almost 14,000 elected officials were women, including 39 percent of the congresspersons, 35 percent of the mayors and 23 percent of the police force.

Social media zombies and COVID-19

By 2011, Nielsen Philippines said that the internet took over urban centers with over 43 percent of Filipinos gaining access. Of those, 67 percent admitted to visiting social networking sites.

Just five years later, fewer Filipinos are communicating via text messaging as most cellphone users in the country have switched to online chats and messenger apps, the Department of Information and Communications Technology said. There was a 40 percent drop in text messaging over the next three years, with the same percentage of mobile phone users shifting to online messaging by 2016. 

By 2018, the Philippines topped the world in social media usage as 67 million people spent almost four hours a day on social media sites such as Facebook. The following year, it was named the biggest user of the internet in the world, becoming the longest-duration internet surfers, with each user spending an astounding 10 hours a day on various electronics, such as computers, smartphones and smart TVs.

Political and social discourse not surprisingly underwent a massive upheaval with the monumental upsurge of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It created a nation divided as accusations were made of troll farms and echo chambers, as well as algorithms that seemingly magnified issues, news and statements.

As of 2020, Facebook claimed 2.8 billion monthly active users, and ranked seventh in global internet usage. “FB” was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.

The internet would also become a hunting ground for criminals, mimicking the dark dystopian worlds of The Walking Dead zombies and Hunger Games. “Hacking” would become a word in 2005, the same with “black hat” and “phishing,” which stood for villains and the machinations to separate one from one’s bank account passwords.

In 2016, the Bank of Bangladesh caper began with a seemingly harmless email sent to the Fed that contained malware and would become the country’s first billion-peso caper, a precursor to 2021’s ransomware of America’s energy and hospital networks. The arrival of cryptocurrencies has made this only more possible.

The COVID pandemic simply accelerated the shift from the real to the virtual even faster: from work-from-home offices to virtual entertainment in online gaming and Netflix.

Social distancing turned Philippine education to distance learning. However, lack of internet infrastructure and online access forced public schools to turn to a method called modular learning, which required the massive publication (in the hundreds of millions) of learning modules. Private schools were able to shift to virtual classrooms through Google Classroom and Vibal’s Vsmart learning management system.

E-commerce finally took off with the wild success of Lazada, Shopee and a whole slew of Viber-powered merchants for ube pandesal and sushi bake. (In response, Automated Teller Machines or ATMs are expected to give way to payment channels such as G-Cash.)  Cryptocurrencies have become the easily imaginable future.

The 2020s have become an era — post-Avenger hunks, of course — of scantily dressed women with followers as plentiful as a small city and men with net worths even bigger than the European Union. (Nowadays, someone who’s down to their last $100 million is considered simply middle-class.) Big numbers continue to dominate in every pastime and auctions continue to help you keep count. (Incidentally, León Gallery’s stats show that while 40 percent of its bids are still done live, another 40 percent is by phone — mostly via mobile — and 20 percent through the internet.)

But there are glimmers of light up ahead.

One of the most arresting exhibitions of the last decade was one titled “The Inverted Telescope,” conceptualized by the artist Angel Shaw Velasco. It played with the concept of examining things and first seeing them upside down for a split-second before the brain righted them. In truth, in a sea of fake news, memes, and self-produced content, there will always be room for the curated experience created by professionals.

And once again, The Philippine STAR continues to make a successful transition, this time to the online world by providing exactly that. (At the moment, it has more followers, interestingly enough, than even the Department of Education, Meralco and the University of the Philippines.) It’s no wonder, since its painstakingly written output, carefully photographed, edited and vetted, makes all the difference in making us kinder, smarter and more human in the decades ahead. Here’s to the next 35.