At a time when blogging was still unheard-of, emanila has been experimenting over the years since 1998 with several forms of community-based websites where writers interact among themselves, writers interact with readers, or readers interacting among themselves. Two of our popular community-based websites are our entertainment website, The Best of Pinoy Jokes, and our poetry site, emanilapoetry (Tulang Pinoy, Pinoy Verses, Pinoy Poets).

When Jimmy Pimentel, convenor of Filpress Group, broached recently the idea of pooling together the writings of some of our friends in the community to form a blogs site, I had no hesitation in embracing the idea. It is in the character of emanila and The Filipino Australian to sponsor such a site.

As publisher of emanila group of websites, I take pride in re-opening the blogs site. I believe it is an opportunity for us to provide a platform where everyone can be heard, where everyone can share their thoughts, and where everyone can express their views.

The re-opening of The Filipino Australian Blogs site this weekend is even made more significant as it coincides with Australia Day (January 26), a very fitting occasion indeed to assert our role as a cultural group in Australia’s multicultural society.

For our initial blogs pages, in addition to Jimmy’s, we are happy and proud to open the blogs of Mitchell Badelles, Michelle Baltazar, Kristyn Maslog-Levis, Nonoy Perdon, and Bless Salonga. We are also happy to open the initial pages of Jess Diaz’ The Basic Facts column.

To all our initial contributing bloggers, maraming salamat po. I salute you all for sharing with us your thoughts and for displaying to everyone the Filipino spirit of cooperation in action.

Mitchell Badelles is an active community leader and an exponent of Philippine heritage including Philippine martial arts. He runs his own business under Cosmo Stellar, an environmental sustainability company. His operating philosophy includes: “… learning/education – a must for an individual or community to be at peace with oneself and others.”

Michelle Baltazar is a Sydney-based writer. It is to Michelle’s credit that last year she had the opportunity to visit the Philippines as a source of material for her upcoming coffee-table book about Manila. Her initial blog? I now call Australia home.

Kristyn Maslog-Levis is a Sydney-based freelance writer/photographer. She wrote for the old The Filipino Australian some years. Her blog entry in this site therefore is a comeback, and a fitting one at that as she shares her thoughts about driving, speeding, and ‘glassing’.

Nonoy Perdon is publisher of Sydney-based community newspaper, Bayanihan News (The Philippines in Australia). For his initial blog, he writes about Filpress which is showing the community that an organisation could run as well – if not better – even without the formal trappings of a hierarchical structure.

Bless Salonga is a Sydney-based creative writer whose passion includes business management & coaching, choreography and music. Last year, we had the opportunity to write about Sweet Mojo, a fast-rising three-piece band that toured the Philippines last year to help in raising funds for the Ondoy victims.

Jaime K. Pimentel. In addition to having the passion to helping community associations on how to use media to advance their mission, and to helping his fellow media practitioners, Jimmy was also an amateur boxer (in his younger days). He also currently dabbles in photography, cartooning, and social media. He is a journalist by profession and is associated as a section editor with one of Australia’s largest newspapers publishing networks.

The last one (but definitely not the least) I would like to introduce is Jess Diaz who is re-starting his column of many years back, “The Basic Facts.” Jess holds the distinction of being the first Filipino to be admitted as a barrister in Australia in 1984, and also the first Philippine-born and first Asian elected Councillor of Blacktown City. Elected in 2008, Jess sits as one of three Ward 3 councillors. Blacktown is home to over 280,000 people and is considered one of Australia’s largest local governments.

With regard to Jess Diaz’ column, I must point out that whilst the main thread of his column may appear like a platform for an electoral campaign (which of course is not necessarily endorsed by this website or its staff), nevertheless we thought that this blogs site would be an appropriate forum on the issues raised by Jess. I encourage everyone to have their voices heard by way of commenting. Likewise, I invite all those who have other views, opposing or otherwise, and those who desire to air their views on this site to contact us so we can provide them a similar space.

That said and with our seven starting bloggers, I welcome you all to our newly re-opened The Filipino Australian Blogs site. As we progress, we hope to receive more participation from others in the community. Like our other websites in the emanila group, The Filipino Australian Blogs site is a work in progress.

We look forward to your active interaction with our contributing bloggers.

Sincerely
Romy

Romy Cayabyab
Publisher

Other post/s by Romy Cayabyab

• Know your privacy rights and protect them - May 5th, 2011
• Banana growers ‘at war’ with economics - December 22nd, 2010
• A relief from useless and costly fax marketing - October 19th, 2010
• How to reprint copyrighted articles safely - October 9th, 2010
• CommBank’s subsidiary fails the Spam Act test on two counts - February 2nd, 2010