A Tale of Online and SMS Voting.

Today, two contrasting news about how Filipinos received/lost recognition through online and SMS voting.

Several months ago, I help by forwarding to all my acquaintance an appeal to vote for a Filipino invention in the World Challenge, a global competition sponsored by BBC World, Newsweek and Shell in the United Kingdom. The Philippine entry, "Coconets", is invented by agricultural engineer Justino Arboleda who formed Juboken Enterprise, to market "coconets" which are made from coconut husks to control erosion and landslides. "Coconets" was adjudged overall winner.

On the other hand, favorite Miss World candidate, Carlene Aguilar of the Philippines failed to land in the magic 15 of the Miss World grand finals in Sanya, China inspite of online and SMS voting.

What happened to the vaunted Filipino online and SMS vote?

Voting for "coconets" was free. You only need to visit the World Challenge website and vote while in the Miss World pageant, you pay a dollar for every vote.

Implications? Filipinos, even those who are working abroad, are reeling from the economic anf financial crunch in the Philippines. I wondered by Jose Pidal did not help this time?