Blogging in the Philippines

I’m rather proud of my Science Blogging 2008 T-shirt. Brown isn’t my favourite colour, but the logo looks good and I wear it in the knowledge that it’s a pretty exclusive brand. So I spent a day last month parading it around midtown Manila. I don’t know what I expected but it didn’t attract any attention (well, except for the usual invitations to buy a Rolex or some Viagra).
Although SMS texting is the number one preoccupation in the Philippines, blogging does seem quite popular too. I read one article in the Manila press commenting that a series of recent corruption exposes had shown the power of political bloggers there in rooting out wrong-doing.
Science blogging seems still to be in its infancy though. I found a list of Filipino science blogs but it has just nine blogs and most of them cover science only incidentally, that is hardly at all.
More interesting is the Filipino Voices blog where I found a post about the problems of Filipino science . Professor Flor Lacanilao, a respected Pinoy scientist, has drawn attention to the lack of meritocracy in Philippine science, criticising the National Academy of Science and Technology.
Lacanilao stresses the importance of publication in peer reviewed journals. He says that in the Philippines poor research practice contributes to the lack of a publication culture and severely compromises graduate training and education. It’s good to see forthright views being expressed so freely.
Finally, I am happy to see that there is a Filipino librarian blog