Villar, Fernando raffle off cell phones, laptops to lucky visitors

MANILA - Internet users had until Saturday (August 15) to try winning one of the mobile phones that Senator Manuel Villar Jr. raffled off.

If you let that pass, then you have until September 30 to get any of the laptops that Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Bayani Fernando is giving away.

At least these two presidential aspirants have taken their web presence a notch higher by putting up interactive sites while other politicians haven’t gone beyond Facebook and Twitter. As Newsbreak has monitored, these sites are not wanting in users.

Villar’s www.akalamo.com website follows the concept of his recent TV advertisements debunking supposed misconceptions about the senator, like “Akala mo trapo, ’yun pala ka-tropa mo” (You thought he’s a traditional politician, but he turns out to be your buddy).

Misconceptions

There’s no missing that the site is Villar’s. It has an orange theme, after the signature “campaign” color of the senator, and it displays slideshows of the senator’s photographs. The TV ad, featuring popular local band Parokya ni Edgar, automatically plays when the home page uploads. The has the same overall look and feel as that of Villar’s official website, www.mannyvillar.com.ph.

Visitors to the “Akala Mo” website are asked to share their own misconceptions about anything and anybody by completing the sentence, “Akala ko ____, ’yun pala ____.” Those who key in entries are automatically included in the raffle.

Five Nokia 7100 Supernova mobile phones were given away. The said phone model costs between P4,100 and P4,800 per unit.

Also included in the raffle were those who posted their “Akala Mo” statements on Facebook and Twitter (thereby promoting the Villar slogan, if not his site), and those who recruited others to post their statements.

There’s a long list of statements posted on Villar’s promo site. The entries range from the amusing, “Akala ko maganda ako, ’yun pala dyosa na ako” (I thought I’m just beautiful; I didn’t know I’m a goddess), to the political, “Akala ko dinner, ’yun pala pera ng bayan” (I thought it was a simple dinner; turned out it’s paid for by public funds).

Role Playing

Fernando’s website, www.bayanifernando.com.ph, adopts his pink-and-blue MMDA theme, and features the game “Be the Chairman.”

The game puts the player on the chaotic and unorganised streets of Metro Manila, and challenges him to play the role of Fernando. The more things he gets to fix or clean, the more “gwapo” (handsome) points he earns. Fernando’s slogan for MMDA’s cleanliness campaign is “Metro Grwapo” (literally, goodlooking metropolis).

The screen is divided into 5 lanes. As dirt or obstructions appear on the lanes, the player removes them by pressing the keys that correspond to the 5 lanes, in this case, the 4 arrow keys and the spacebar.

In the middle of the game, an image of Fernando with MMDA slogans in dialogue balloons pops up on the lower left part of the screen.

The 2 highest scorers will each win an Asus EEE laptop. The said model costs P16,000 to P24,000 apiece, depending on its features.

Growing Numbers

There have been complaints in the Forum section of the site about how difficult the mechanics of the game are. So far, the field for the highest scorers remains empty. This is because scores would be recorded only when a player finishes the game. High scores attained in earlier levels of the game are not credited.

The site administrator has promised to look into the matter, since some players pointed out the possibility that nobody would win the prizes.

A study last year on internet penetration by the research firm AC Nielsen showed that 28 percent of the total 35 million urban population are internet users. The numbers are expected to increase by 10 percent this year.

About 70 percent of current internet users are between 10 and 29 years old. About 53 percent of them are online gamers. (Newsbreak)