OF COURSE, homegrown political sites are as biting, if not even more so. And there's little doubt that the rush to the Web took its cue from perceived threats to press freedom by a president who has openly shown his disdain towards an adversarial media. After all, the Net's inherent anarchy and decentralized nature continue to afford people with a foil to counter efforts by governments and the thought-police to control it. Put another way, free speech and free expression has become, well, even freer in the hands of those equipped with a modem.

So if Malacañang thought it had managed to "contain" the "press problem" after the Manila Times and the advertisers' boycott of the Philippine Daily Inquirer last year, the anti-erap.com site should have quickly forced it to do some rethinking. Its Webmaster says the site was inspired by a caption from the last issue of the Times that had complained, "Binangga kami ng Jeep ni Erap (We were rammed by Erap's Jeep)!" Erap cannot simply do that with the Internet, the Webmaster says, and he had put up the site soon after the Gokongweis let go of the Times.

Anti-erap.com has since provided Filipino netizens a venue for freely expressing themselves, what they feel about burning issues that confront them and their government. Though no longer updated as frequently as before, the site had been particularly active at the height of charter change debates last year, when the Estrada administration, with its usual macho bravado and characteristic stubbornness, pushed for amendments to the Constitution.

A number of forum sites has followed anti-erap.com's lead. One, www.eraptimetogo.itgo.com, hosts a more sober discussion of political issues and, in fact, counsels against getting rid of Estrada as a solution—though it says it's a good start. Another, the "Erap Sucks Page!!!", is more blatant about its purpose, which is to become a convergence of "fellow Erap haters (discussing) Erap, his stupidity, his lovers, his bumbling incompetence, etc." This site also chastises the so-called Silent (!) Protest movement, which also has a Web site, for its lack of direction. Instead, the site owners have started their own middle finger movement. Its logo—a parody of the diagonal exclamation point—is a right hand of someone probably suffering from elephantiasis with a disproportionately large middle finger.

To be sure, the sites that have more than a liberal dose of humor in their approach to issues are not only more entertaining, they come across as simply the more quintessentially Pinoy. To a Filipino, after all, laughter is not just the best medicine there is, it is also a weapon.

As literary forms as old as antiquity, parody and satire play historically important roles. But more than their intended entertaining effect, what gives parody and satire their social value is their criticism of the vices, follies, inanities and abuses of people in power. And no one seems to appreciate and do this better than the Pinoy.

Take "Labs ko si ERAP!", literally, I Love Erap! Now before Estrada allies become too excited, they should be forewarned: The website professes anything but affection for the President. For starters, check the list of Erap's "outstanding qualities and memorable achievements," among which are family values and loyalty wherein the President gets an excellent rating (a grade of A). The first is for being the ultimate family man, treating everyone like family because almost every other person is his relative in some way. The second is because when you are Erap's friend, you are friends till the end. And you can always count on him to appoint you as his adviser even if you are wanted for criminal acts by a foreign country.

Then there's Bobong Pinoy, which contains angst-ridden observations of Philippine society. Created by Bob Ong, it traipses through all sorts of topics tongue in cheek, targetting a variety of Pinoy travails such as local TV viewing, riding the LRT and the Filipino's propensity for electing actors into office. The site uses Pilipino as a medium and features a running comic superhero series on Mighty Erap.

But the Big Daddy of political satire this side of cyberspace is probably Gerry Kaimo's celebrated pldt.com. This site first burst into the online universe in December 1998 to raise public awareness on the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company's (PLDT) plan to impose a mandatory local metering scheme. Since being sued by the telecom giant for "trade infringement," Kaimo has turned pldt.com into a free speech site, and it has taken potshots at every "enemy" of the people imaginable - PLDT, obviously, the Marcoses, Erap, ousted Indonesian strongman Suharto and his generals even.

The site likewise dishes out one-paragraph commentaries on the major headline stories. In the ongoing clashes between the military and Muslim rebels over a national highway in Mindanao, for instance, it issued this observation: "The last time (we) heard, there were no valiant heroes of Mindanao battles named 'Narciso.' In a land of Abduls, Mohammads and a lot more interesting names, there appears the name of an Ilocano whose contribution to Mindanao is yet unclear. Maybe that is why there is so much fighting there, to remind politicians that there are things more important to the Philippine economy than changing street names."

YET WHILE anti-Erap sentiments provide a common thread, some sites depart from the individualistic, gut approach to issues, and put forward concrete grievances arising from the political patronage Estrada bestows on his friends, some of whom happen to be the highest and mightiest of today's elite. These are non-parody sites, but that does not make them any less dissident, since they challenge official policies or try to provide a different perspective to issues.

The Missing Marcos Billions site, for instance, documents the developments in the recovery efforts of the illicit assets of the Marcoses and their cronies. The Transparency and Public Accountability Today and Tomorrow (TAPATT), a newly formed foundation advocating for transparency and accountability in government, also maintains a website where information about its current campaign, the "My Favorite Crook Sweepstakes," is available. From this it hopes to build a database on government officials as part of an effort to detect unexplained wealth.

The Freedom to Fly Coalition, meanwhile, is another recently created group, this time in response to actions by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). Its main grouse, though, is CAB's perceived giving of preferential treatment to the Philippine Airlines, which is owned by presidential friend Lucio Tan.

But there is a newcomer that should be particularly appealing to a wider variety of frustrated Pinoys: "Hot Manila", the latest local tabloid to hit the Web. The site is produced by a group of journalist-friends intending to do the sort of journalism it can practice online. That means a site that compresses news and dissatisfaction; concentrates anger; condenses plain speaking; flavors it with irreverent humor and present it with good writing—the sort, as site editor Alan Robles says, that has been "pansified and adulterated by the growing influx of suck-up lifestyle text producers."

If its initial issue is any indication of what it will offer in the future, "Hot Manila" is bound to set the Web on fire. Its first blast includes a banner in-depth report on 12 registered private foundations using Estrada's name to raise funds and obtain donations for charity. The story came on the heels of allegations by former board members that Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) funds for state charity last year were appropriated by members of the First Family for their own projects.

Estrada and his family also figure in news bullets that depict his infectious dumbness (the First Lady spoke on national TV about her plans to provide mobile clinics to the 80 poorest provinces when the country only has 78) or allude to his insatiable appetite for women (how many of the 500 million Filipinos by the year 2050 will be surnamed Ejercito?) The President is also the subject of bogus surveys and even a special prayer imploring divine help for the catastrophe that is the president.

But just in case Estrada feels that he is being singled out, there are also sections about the Marcoses that certainly cast them in the same bad, or even worse, light. "File 1081" contains articles on the Marcos dictatorship, martial law and hidden wealth. "Man of Steal: Great Marcos Moments" narrates how the late dictator and wife Imelda kept invoking the Fifth Amendment (the right against self-incrimination) during their 12-hour deposition regarding questions on ill-gotten wealth. "Booty and the Beast" lists down the contents of the 300 crates of loot the Marcoses brought with them to Hawaii, and items they left in Malacañang in their haste to flee.