MANILA - Most Filipinos may not have been able to meet United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in person at the University of Santo Tomas (UST), but they certainly managed to make their voices heard through a different means: the world wide web.

Filipinos across the globe sent in their questions and comments to the US Secretary of State through chatrooms, social networking sites, and even video sharing website YouTube while ABS-CBN's "Hillary Clinton: The Manila Forum" was aired on Friday morning.

Questions ranged from serious to trivial. Leandro Perez of Marikina City, for instance, asked this question about the government's human rights violations.

"My question is on the state department reports on issues of human rights violations by the Philippine government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. What's your position regarding this issue, and what are your concrete actions or proposals (in response to this)?" Perez asked Clinton via YouTube.

Perez' video, which was aired during the forum, was answered eagerly by Clinton. She also cited the success of the event, which she said managed to connect Filipinos worldwide by using different platforms.

"I'm delighted to know that this forum in the university is connected to so many places in the country, and maybe even beyond the country. I think there are Filipinos elsewhere who are actually tuned in. So I say hello to everyone," Clinton said.

As of 9:40 a.m., there has been 601 tweets from the forum's twitter.com hashtag, #ANCCLINTON. A total of 442 comments have also been sent, including 45 reposted from social networking site Facebook.

Some 2,219 online users logged on to www.abs-cbnnews.com/ancliveevents, a chatroom created to accommodate views and questions directed to Clinton. One online guest chatter has described the Clinton forum as "the most unsanitized forum ever."

R82, another chatter, was successful in getting his message aired during the forum.

He asked: "When will the US change its immigration policies? Australia, Canada, NZ (New Zealand), and even Great Britain, have been employing thousands of Filipinos through skilled migration via a point system. Why can't the US emulate those developed countries?"

But of all the questions sent online, an brave and innocent query by a young girl amused not only Clinton, but also the newsteam and the rest of the audience.

The question, which was read by ABS-CBN Senior Vice President for News and Current Affairs Maria Ressa, said: "If you had a crush aside from Bill Clinton, who would it be?"

Clinton, who was surprised at the question, answered it gamely: "I had lots of crushes, including entertainment stars (like) singer Fabian. I was president of the Fabian fan club, there were 3 of us."

Truly, the world wide web is a powerful tool that can make the simplest questions reach the most powerful people.