UPDATE: Correction! Correction! Ms. Jessica Zafra sent an email to clarify that she did not write this letter. Kevin Allman is the real author.

My apologies to Ms. Zafra, Mr. Allman and everyone.

To Madame Jessica Zafra: Bravo (for this good find)!

Allman‘s Zafra’s reaction to the US economic meltdown will put to shame each and every spammer from Nigeria, they who send us endless pleas for assistance in exchange for gazillions of dollars.

Thanks to Ms. Zafra for the heads up.

Applause, cheers and the never-ending flicker of camera lights welcomed the country’s top bloggers at the 2nd Philippine Blog Awards held Sunday at glitzy rites held at 1Esplanade near SM Mall of Asia.

Some bloggers came in formal attire, while others came in smart casual wear, but no one seemed to mind. Everyone was up on their toes on who were chosen by the judges, mostly bloggers too, as the best across 36 categories.

A number of attendees twittered and plurked and liveblogged, while those who were not present watched the proceedings through webcasts.

Filipinos are at the top of the world in terms of social networking and up there too in terms of blogging!

This is no wonder since Pinoy culture is strong on networking:

Filipino Netizens among most sociable
By Riza T. Olchondra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:29:00 09/19/2008

MANILA, Philippines — You think that collectively sending about one billion text messages daily is enough for Filipinos to stay in touch? Apparently not.

In the third edition of Universal McCann’s study on social media, the Philippines had the social networking highest penetration among Internet users (83.1 percent) compared with the global average of 57.5 percent.

Dear Correspondent:

You are so insightful and I think I will reward you with something, perhaps soon.

But you know, dear Correspondent, a blogger obviously felt alluded to and has hidden behind lotsa verbal deadwood. I will leave Dana to defend herself and her views because I have 100% confidence that she can competently do so in the face of fact-twisting and misrepresentation. I think a blogger saw so many things in her blog post, so many goblins, and went to even more absurd lengths to twist stuff even further — and made the makers of Alaxan FR so giddy (parang masel na pinili-pilipit).

A big number of bloggers attended today’s WordCamp Philippines at the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde in Manila. Touted as the first such event in Southeast Asia, the event is now part of local blogging and internet history.

Keynote speaker was Matt Mullenweg, Mr. WordPress himself, who had an instant rapport with the admiring audience of Filipino bloggers.

President Arroyo claims that more than 80 percent of VAT revenues are paid by the rick and at the same time, it is the poor that benefit from the onerous, regressive tax.

Bulatlat has a story contradicting this claim, quoting heavily from an expert whose study of government data has showed the exact opposite. Blogger/electrical engineer/activist Monram lighted the way for the Bulatlat report.