MANILA, Philippines - The latest Manila society drama rolled out last week, not in Forbes Park salons, but on computer monitors across cyberspace. It has threatened to shatter dozens of names and reputations. The drama is that artifact of our times: a blog. An online confessional, although in this case, it’s more accusational.

The blogger, an Australian, says he was the boyfriend of a Manila male society-page fixture.

The Australian in eight entries accuses his former lover of swindling him out of US$70,000 that he had lent him, purportedly for the purpose of putting up a restaurant.

The Aussie paints a disturbing, dark portrait of his erstwhile lover.

Gang of accomplices

His poison pen stabs several other members of his ex-boyfriend’s circle, the so-called “Gucci Gang.”

The size of the online crowd that has gathered to gawk at the verbal massacre is remarkable. The web statistics, on Friday afternoon, stood at: 270,000 visits since the blog started, of which 260,000 took place in the last five days. This amounts to about 36,600 visits a day, or 2,000 visits an hour during the waking hours. Each visit lasts an average of 52 minutes.

In effect, the blog’s cumulative audience “outrates” practically every TV show on the lesser networks and cable, and some on the leading networks’ daytime programming.

The Aussie writes he has received 3,412 e-mails since he started the blog. This is apart from the hundreds of comments posted.

Shame campaign

The Aussie says he put up the blog to shame his ex into paying him back, and would gladly pull it off the Net once the debt is paid. Instead, the “Gucci Gang” have apparently chosen to strike back. The Aussie reported dramatically in the blog on Tuesday morning in Australia that Philippine consul officials and the Australian police took away his computer and questioned him.

The Aussie has revealed his own humble origins (he calls himself a farm boy), and the fact that he is HIV-positive. He admits he was swept up in the seemingly lavish lifestyle of the “Gucci Gang.”

Underground revulsion

But what is also shocking is the blinding hot hatred poured forth in the (mostly anonymous) comments and responses to the blog. Evidently, there is a lot of underground revulsion for these so-called society figures, and the blog has served to lance a rather swollen boil, venting a spray of verbal pus on many faces, including bold-type, left-to-right regulars and others mentioned in passing, few of whom survive unscathed.

Most of the comments are too caustic and antagonistic to be quoted in a nationally circulated newspaper. Reading them is a rush of schadenfreude, simultaneously delicious and horrible, perhaps like eating Valrhona-chocolate-covered cockroaches.

For purposes of reportage, they include accusations such as who slept with whom, so-and-so’s husband is gay, so-and-so claims to be a fashionista but she’s “bigger than a Hi-Ace,” and many equally sordid “gems” of bitchiness.

Freeloaders

The Aussie himself accuses them of being nothing but freeloaders of corporate-public-relations largesse, with the not-so-naive complicity of the media and advertising industries. He seems to have an obssessive disdain for the “swag bags” or “loot bags” given out to these so-called VIPs at PR events.

Debates

Such fare has sparked discussion across the Net, as well as among the city’s gossipmongers.

For example, how “fair” is it for the Aussie to be making all of these accusations on such a medium? He himself writes that he decided to try to attract attention to his cause when he was told by Philippine lawyers that the soonest he could probably recover his money is three years, which he felt was too long. He has given space to a post apparently from one of his targets, and there is no indication that he is suppressing or preventing the rest from airing their sides.

In fact, the Aussie appeared to have shut down the blog briefly midweek, after a number of comments urged him to stop the verbal violence, especially to those not directly involved.

New posts

However, the Aussie resurfaced with a new series of posts Thursday evening, although he disabled the “comments” pages, which featured the most vicious posts. He insists (up to press time) that he has not been paid a centavo.

Whether he finally shuts the blog down or not, the damage it has already caused to certain reputations is dramatic. But, this being Manila, where characters ranging from Imelda Marcos to Kris Aquino to Lolit Solis and Jojo Veloso have been involved in toe-curlingly embarrassing scandals and yet have “come back” and regained various degrees of social acceptance, who can say if the damage is permanent?

It is in the nature of an existential question: How low does one have to sink in order to be fundamentally and permanently rejected by Philippine society? Amazingly, it looks like the depth record is yet to be set.

The latest:

The Filipino ex-lover and his family are exploring legal moves.

In a talk with Lifestyle, the ex-lover denied that they have paid off the Australian blogger.

It continues to be the talk of the town. Over lunch last week, two ladies were talking animatedly about the blog when, turning around, they were greeted by the Filipino blog subject himself. Blush. Blush. But—they got the lowdown from him, firsthand.