Today marks the start of the fourth month of our public service to the reading public and to the Overseas-Filipino World’s (OFW’s) cyber community, in particular. As I reported on June 14, 2007, we more-than doubled the number of hits (from 3,100 to 9,295) during our second month. As of 6:35 a.m. (Pacific Time) today, our hits totaled 20,186, which more-than equaled our performance for the first two months. In short, our website generated 10,891 hits for our third month. In fact, our webmaster, Allan Albert, had to increase the size of the bandwidth to accommodate the growing number of articles and comments from readers. After all, he also published the complete works – cover to cover – of Jose P. Rizal’s Noli, Fili and two of the national hero’s other works.

Thank you, Dear Readers, for your support. We are certainly breaking some records on our way to becoming the fastest-growing Filipino community web site in the world.

Our webmaster said also that the Google data showed a higher volume of traffic but our counter shows only the visits to the front page. If readers go direct to the individual pages, their visits would not be reflected in the counter. In other words, the number of hits per article reflects the actual number of readers per page. And we have been saying that we are one of the few Filipino community web sites that actually display a counter. Other sites have removed the counter because the traffic generated is that low. Please read also the Editor’s Update on June 14, 2007, at this link http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/15/1/

Alexa.com Ranking

In the ranking of web sites by Alexa.com, we started getting ranked after our first month. Our initial ranking was just below the 5.0-millionth spot. Today, our ranking is 2,324,145 or a jump of more-than 2.6-million spots. We have a long way to go but we feel good about our ranking.

Actually our ranking (still high as it appears) is quite an achievement considering that a Washington, DC-based Filipino online magazine is ranked by Alexa.com as No. 6,954,479. A New York-based Filipino web site is ranked 4,262,864. And both online publications have a head start of more-than five years, each, than our web site.

Our Obit Section

We said that our purpose of creating an Obituary Section -- please see http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/category/5/33/51/  --  not only to remember the "Wisdom of Our Filipino Fathers" but also to provide a lasting testament to the success stories of our elders and our contemporary leaders. Little did we know that the Obit Section would immediately list the tributes to an extraordinary Overseas-Filipino achiever, Tonette (Ka Tonyang) Binsol. As viewers can read themselves the messages of condolence and sympathy, there are so many tributes that poured in several Overseas-Filipino e-forums and listserves. What we did was just to compile them and thanks to one friend, Tatay Austri G. Basinillo, we got hold also of a video of Ka Tonyang being interviewed in a Japanese TV program. We have been informed that no other Filipino web site has devoted so much space to Ka Tonyang’s demise than the www.Mabuhayradio.com.

One June 26, 2007, we published the article, "Batting for ‘Filipino Immortality’ at the Dodgers Stadium." To read the article, please go to this link http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/282/51/

We will make operational soon the so-called "Charitable-Gifting Insurance" (CGC) program with the help of the Watermeier Agency of the New York Life, so that our community leaders can leave a lasting legacy to their chosen beneficiary. The beneficiary may be the insured person’s alma mater, church, town or favorite charitable organization. More details will be published in this site about this joint venture with the Watermeier Agency.

We have approached also our friends at the New York Life and other prospective corporate sponsors to help us launch what we call the "Mabuhay Radio International Achievement (MaRIA)" Awards. The MaRIA Awards will recognize the achievements of Overseas-Filipino success stories and their positive contributions to the country where they work or where they are now domiciled.

Reinventing Fil-Am Awards

We will also do again the "Media Breakfast Club (MBC)-Dean Jose Reyes’ Award for Journalistic Excellence and Literary Distinction." We first held it on Nov. 30, 2001, at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel at the Los Angeles Airport. It was the first and so far the only time (since its founding in July 1993) that the MBC handed out awards accompanied by a formal dinner and ball. It was one of the few occasions when the awardees were not asked to buy any dinner ticket or an ad in the souvenir program. In fact, we provided also a roundtrip air ticket and hotel room to one of the awardees, who was based in Chicago, IL. Most of the awardees were given 10 complimentary dinner tickets and prepaid tickets for the bar. Our corporate sponsor also paid for the dinner tickets given to the members of the Filipino press and Filipino-American media and some community leaders. All in all, the MBC’s corporate sponsor provided some 336 complimentary dinner tickets. In short, we showed to our community how to do properly an awarding ceremony, without asking the awardees to pay for the ceremonies and other costs of the event.

By this time next year or even sooner, we hope to do again the MBC-Dean Reyes Literary Prizes and/or the MaRIA Awards. We plan also to present two special awards named after two extraordinary Overseas-Filipino achievers.

With the consent of the Binsol Family, we plan to create what we now call tentatively the "Tonette Binsol Award (TBA)." The TBA will be given to an extraordinary Overseas-Filipino achiever who has emulated her success story. The winner of course must have made also an impact in the homeland and not just in her/his foreign location.

The second individual prize will be the "Dr. Perry Calica’s ‘Philosopher of the Year’ Award." To know more about the late Dr. Perry Calica, please go to this link http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/25/51/

We will also publish in this web site the details about the Calica Award, which we will do with the assistance of the MBC and the Calica Family of Southern California. The award was first given in 1994 by Dr. Calica and the winner was, ahem, this writer. The awarding – under the auspices of the American Legion, Manila Post 464 that Dr. Calica headed at that time – was done at the residence of one of the Calica children in a simple ceremony and function. I did not spend even a single cent in receiving it. Dr. Calica said that the first winner and he would select the second recipient. But he died before we could find the next awardee. Dr. Calica wanted to find an Overseas Filipino who could best demonstrate the Filipino "philosophy or way of life" in the United States or foreign location. As the first winner, I added the need for the next awardee (and subsequent winners) to have a track record of contributing positively to making Filipinos look good, feel good and proud of their multiethnic heritage.

The prizes for all the awards will include transportation and accommodations for the winner in Los Angeles and/or Southern Nevada. It is possible that the awarding ceremonies may be held in Las Vegas, depending on the sponsorship arrangement. We will announce shortly the procedures for finding the first TBA and second Calica Award winners. It may also be possible that we can give more than one TBA and/or Calica Award, depending again on the level of corporate and community support.

So, stay tuned, Dear Readers. And help us "reinvent" so many practices and traditions of our people in our various Overseas-Filipino communities and in the homeland. We have to stop "paying" for the awards that people like to receive in recognition of their talents, experience or even just mere existence. Let corporate sponsors undertake the costs of the awarding ceremonies. Period.

As we say in Sorsogon, "Salamatonon po uli."

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