The Philippines is a paradox in many ways. Slum towns flank modern business districts. There are hundreds of local dialects, but most Filipinos have at least basic proficiency in English. We like to think that some members of the Philippine senate don’t have a good grasp of the online world. Yet their website makes full use of RSS and PDFs.

That’s right: So long as any politically-motivated blogger subscribes to the Philippine Senate RSS feed, they’ll be notified of new Philippine Senate press releases. The senate website also has a searchable database of bills, resolutions, acts, and government partnerships, all in PDF format.

Never was discussing, supporting, or criticizing our elected officials’s policies so easy! It was Loren Legarda’s Boy Bastos press release that clued me in to Mark Verzo’s legal problems.