I would like to know who the webmaster of bohol.gov.ph is.
I was frustrated about that website when its forum section has been swamped with spam posts. I could no longer remember the last time I visited that site. The spammers in its forum site are intrusive to your computer.
Another thing is that its webmaster did not reply to my request that the Bohol Standard website be listed in its Newspaper category. I thought that a government website is fair to all entities in Bohol. Other newspaper sites in Bohol are already linked in that site, whose last copyright notice was in 2005.
I had a different experience. I contacted the webmaster of bohol.ph, who is based in Europe, and asked him to have the Bohol Standard website listed in its directory. Jeroen Hellingman replied to me immediately and on the next day, he posted the link. I wanted our newspaper site listed so that the Boholanos may also know of other source of information, an alternative one.
The webmaster of bohol.gov.ph is the same person who is running tagbilaran.gov.ph, and this person also denied my request to have our site linked to them.
It was unfair because other newspapers are listed in their directories, but they won't list the Bohol Standard. Was it because the man who requested for the listing critical (as a journalist) to both the City Hall and the Capitol?
That was one of the reasons I started to study web design, so I won't come to a government website again.
In fact many of the government websites in the Philippines have failed the standard of what a website should look like and what its contents should have. (Some sites are really, really good, and they are independent sites, not funded by the LGUs).
Even if you visit the official website of the Republic of the Philippines, run by Arroyo's staff, you'd discover that it is poorly designed, and there is not much to read in the site.
Websites in our provinces and in few Philippine towns are not updated, and most of these websites don't really give us significant information about our localities. For one thing, we cannot contribute to its contents, as every aspect of the website is under the control of the local government, who is using public funds to run the site.
Even websites of the national departments like Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of blah, blah.... are not updated and are not presentable to the international community.
One time I was desperate to contact the Department of Foreign Affairs to ask for help because a cousin, who needed immediate hospitalization at that time, was held hostage by her agency in Lebanon, and the agency won't let her go back to the Philippines. Girahon bitaw sa Israel ang Lebanon, kapoliki ang agency personnel ug layas sa Lebanon, mao nakauli akong ig-agaw.
You know what? The DFA last year didn't even list the telephone number of its main office in Manila, and the contact information of those diplomats assigned abroad was not updated. How can that be? A Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Philippines doesn't have a contact information in its website,
not even an e-mail, yes, not even an e-mail, no telephone number. So I e-mailed Butch Bandillo, a Sugbuanon diplomat who married a Boholana (Alma Apalisok) and now posted in Dubai, and from him I got the information who to communicate with for my cousin's rescue.
A DFA without an e-mail address and without a telephone number on its website is really amazing. I never visited that website again and I hope today it had set up its e-mail address and telephone number.
Mao ni nga kung ang atong mga national offices way klaro ang website, unsa na kaha ang atong mga kalungsoran?
As a preview, I have finished drafting the background of "Give Your Town A Website Project." This project will try to knock on the generous hearts of our kababayans abroad to sponsor a website for their respective towns, a website that is interactive, presentable,
independent from government control, and
open to all for submission of stories, articles, and photographs.
For a minimal fee of P6,120 a year, a town website can have its own home page (interactive one, serving also as a newsletter), forum link (like Tubag Bohol), photo gallery (where anybody can upload thousands of local-scene pictures/images, and blog site (for all town writers and thinkers). I will post next week the full details of "Give Your Town A Website Project."
My frustration with government websites encouraged me to look for ways how we can better promote our towns because many of our Philippine towns have more to offer than many international tourist destinations. And this "Give Your Town A Website Project" is one powerful tool for bridging our towns to the rest of the world.
Anda, Bohol, for instance, is much better than many world-class resorts in Thailand. Wala lay facilities ang Anda. And more than a thousand times I have been barraged with one question: "
Asa diay nang Anda, Mike." And those who asked me of this question are pure Boholanos. Thanks to Google Earth software - I can now send a .jpg image of Anda, Bohol to all who would ask me about my town.
Hope our readers of Tubag Bohol would help spread the information about "Give Your Town A Website Project."
As long as I live, I will do my best for our country.
Mabuhi ang Pilipinas,
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