2nd time around Philippine Blog Awards or PBA will be held in Mindanao. This is a yearly event which aims to recognize the bloggers who stand out on their respective niche. Last November 12, 2011 the Philippine Blog Awards was held in Visayas and YES they have lots of potential and nice blogs were nominated during the event. I really gave time to review the nominated blogs in Visayas , those who were awarded for their respective categories. In my opinion YES 90% of them were really qualified and deserving to be nominated.
While this November 26, 2011 it's time for Mindanao to recognize bloggers for their respective niches . The PBA will be held in the home of the champions and the tuna capital of the Philippines, General Santos City. So probably the blogging community in GenSan is hosting this big event. November 17, 2011 the gensantos site released the official blog nominees for Mindanao. We were excited to see the official finalist for Mindanao but when I looked at the finalists, I got so disappointed..
I will specify why I'm disappointed..
* BEAUTY AND FASHION *
- www.pinoytvcritic.com - This is an entertainment blog and it's a 72 days old blog. So it means this blog is too young and does not enough post.
- http://www.chamimayonflats.blogspot.com/ - I can say that this blog is majority not about FASHION and BEAUTY. This blog mostly tackled the owner’s pregnancy period. Looking at the posts, I don’t think this would pass as a finalist. Yeah she has some posts about fashion but those were mostly personal...
FOOD AND BEVERAGE *
- http://www.ormanmanansala.com/ - No doubt that this blog is a food blog, but my question is why is this the only finalist blog nominated in this category..? Were there no other initial nominees? Seriously, the entire MINDANAO?
* LIFESTYLE *
http://akosiisko.wordpress.com/ - How did this become a lifestyle blog..??
- http://www.turtzonthego.blogspot.com/ - SERIOUSLY..??This blog is more on politics..
* PHOTOBLOG *
http://www.iamvisualstoryteller.blogspot.com/ - Did you check this blog before including this as finalist...? This blog does not exist...
* TECHNOLOGY *
- http://gensanblog.com/ - Are you sure that this blog is a TECHNOLOGY BLOG..?? How do you define a Tech Blog? The judges might want to differentiate a Tech blog from a GENERAL BLOG..?
* TRAVEL/DESTINATION *
- http://www.journeysandtravels.com/ and http://jt76.wordpress.com/ - Blog has the same content but nominated as finalists in 2 different categories as in COPY PASTE content to the other TEMPLATE.. Let's assume that this blog was migrated but these 2 are basically the SAME blog. How is it a finalist for 2 categories?
- http://www.wayph.com/ - This blog used images from this blog bukidnonphotojournal.blogspot.com without informing the owner of the blog aside from the watermark of the photos he/she did not give any credit link to the original owner/up-loader of the photos..
I do not know what were the basis of the panel of judges to make a certain blog a finalist for a certain category. I do not wish to question the credibility of the panel but seeing all these lapses on the blogs listed anyone would wonder if the blogs were properly screened or at least reviewed. This blogging award is a BIG shame to the blogging community ESPECIALLY in Mindanao if the panel didn’t bother to scrutinize each entry or if they blindly pick those entries... This is going to be a big down fall, not to mention discouragement, to Mindanao blogospshere.. NO I did not make this post because I am BITTER but what I would like to emphasize here is that we should exercise fairness, transparency, honesty and setting politics aside. "LET THE BEST BLOG WIN" Sadly I didn’t see that implemented..I do not blame the blog owners either as they are not the ones deciding which blogs will make it to the finals. We hope that next year PHILIPPINE BLOG AWARDS will really ensure that every blog nominated are really well screened, judged and are reviewed properly if not meticulously. Let someone who is deserving receive the award...There are a LOT of MINDANAO BLOGS of different niches who deserve such recognition and probably bragging rights. Thank you and hope you are proud...