The 2nd Philippine Web Awards (1999)

The 2nd Philippine Web Awards was held on November 17, 1999 at the New World Hotel Grand Ballroom in Makati, Philippines. It was hosted by Mari Kaimo and Pinky Amador.

The awards on its 2nd year continue to recognize outstanding individuals and organizations in the Philippines in the field of Web design and development.

The awards is created and organized by THE WEB Philippines (a bi-monthly publication of WS Computer Publishing Corporation, Philippine licensee of the International Data Group IDG).

‘Best Websites’ Awards winners

‘People’s Choice’ Awards winners

Special Awards

Original link to access list of winners:
Internet Archive Link 1
Internet Archive Link 2
Internet Archive Link 3

Special Awards

Five special distinct awards were also given away that night. Aside from the ‘Intel E-Commerce Website’ award and ‘Web Site of the Year’, they added the ‘Compaq Multimedia Site of the Year’, ‘Hewlett-Packard E-Services Website’, and ‘Most Popular Web Site of the Year’ (which is the highest site that gained votes from the People’s Choice Awards.

Controversial winner

Gerri Kaimo of PLDT.com (a site under Weird/Humor that is not owned by Telco giant, PLDT) is the most controversial person who attended the event. The Philippine Web Awards has awarded him the Best Website award under Weird/Humor category. Six years later, the domain dispute on PLDT.com was supposed to have been settled.

Repeat winners from the 1st year and new ones

More participants attended the 2nd awards night, including representatives from ABS-CBN (which won 2 awards that night – the ‘Compaq Multimedia Site of the Year’ and People’s Choice for the TV/Radio category), CandyMag, Tsinoy.com (which won over Localvibe.com), Phil Daily Inquirer.

It’s also been attended by repeat webmaster winners — Jim Ayson, founder of PhilMusic.com, won again under the ‘Best Website – Music’ and People’s Choice – Music category for PhilMusic.com (Ayson in a later interview was quoted that he thought that strong website award contender ‘Vibestation’ might win the Best Music Website award that night). Including the 1999 awards, Jim Ayson’s PhilMusic.com already have four (4) Web Awards, two from 1998 and two from that night.

Ronnie Miranda (celebrity webmaster of several celebrity sites) won the People’s Choice Award for The Sharon Cuneta website.

Webmaster Inday (Cheryl Fuerte), won again, in the ‘Best Website – Film/Celebrities’ category for the DonnaCruz.com website (which also won as 1998 People’s Choice Award in the Film/Celebrities category). Fuerte additionally bagged two more People’s Choice awards that night (under categories ‘Family/Personal’ for her personal website, and under ‘Health/Science’ for another website), which made her won the most of the night (three awards) and ironically the youngest.

New Winners

New winners also made their mark in the 2nd Philippine Web awards. CandyMag, Kotse.com, Tsinoy.com, Mike’s World (by Mike Holandez, which won one of the highest accolade of the night – ‘Website of the Year’ award), Lakbay.net, the Provincial Government of Bohol (which won another high accolade of the night – ‘Most Popular Web Site of the Year’ which is the highest site that gained votes from the People’s Choice Awards), and more. Jewelmer.com won in the Business category, defeating BenchTM (a popular fashion retail chain in the Philippines). OneOcean, a new winner in the Environment category, had a touching speech reminding the audience to support the ocean’s cause. Webmaster and President of Action Online Benj Arriola bagged two awards – for Agrilink and Heritage Hotel.

Additionally—

A plaque of appreciation was given to Pinoy Pulis Help Online–a Philippine National Police (PNP) Website.

More rock stars and celebrities

Popular rock bands RiverMaya, Mojofly, Sandwich have performed during the night as well as Kulay, Chill, and Victoria. Celebrities Alice Dixson, Joey Mead and a stunning Liza Infante were also some of the presentors of the night. Rico Blanco, lead of RiverMaya is also one of the judges of the night.

Meet the Judges

Arts and Design, Print and Weird categories
– Robert Alejandro, columnist
– Karen Kunawicz, TV host
– Myrza Sison, Cosmopolitan Philippines editor in chief

Business, Computer and Government categories
– Gerry Anigan, project manager of Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc.,
– Ramon Jocson, IBM Philippines president
– Mari Kaimo – host, newscaster
– Atty. Francis Pangilinan, celebrity lawyer

Family/Personal and Children/Education categories
– Heinz Bulos, The Web Philippines editor,
– Tonette Martel, columnist and
– Girlie Rodis, talent manager

Film/Celebrities, TV/Radio and Music
Rico Blanco, guitarist/vocalist of River Maya
Gil Edeza, country manager of 3Com Philippines
Bo Razon, musician

Health/Science, Environment, Travel
– Joel Desini, president of the E-mail Company,
– Dave Quitoriano, vice president of WS Fiesta Online
– Wong, Chin Wah, editor of Computer World Philippines

Home/Hobbies, Games and Sports
Albert dela Cruz, president and CEO of Wolfpac, Communications, Inc.
Mia Goloy, editor of PC World
Quinito Henson, sportscaster/writer

The URL of the 2nd Philippine Webby Awards is www.philippinewebawards.com. Visit the Internet Archive to see the original pages.

A full-page spread of the 1999 Philippine Web Awards