I just saw that Roberto Verzola, the “father of Philippine email” and a
nettimer from the “heroic” period, died a few years ago — “during Covid” but,
as one obit says, not due to it. I never met Roberto IRL, and I’m not sure how
many nettimers ever did, so — unless I missed something, which is entirely
possile — that his death would go unmentioned on the list maybe isn’t so
surprising If anything, it’s a testament to the remarkable reach of this list
in a time when, amazingly, the poetics of the net were very different, somehow
smaller or even strangely intimate. The involvement of a Filipino activist was
important for the list’s imaginary.
I did a Google search to check out his postings:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Roberto+Verzola%22+site%3Anettime.org
I remember him as being a bit more prolific, but it’s hard to tell. In Google’s
earlier years, it *loved* nettime, but sometime, I’d guess somewhere in the
2010–2015 range, it changed how it processed mailing lists, and now it’s all
but useless for finding results.
Abstractions aside, hats off to Roberto for what sounds like a life well-lived
in a time and place where it would have been much easier — and much safer — to
drift along. 🎩
A few links below.
Ted
——-
P2P Foundation bio
https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Roberto_Verzola
Libcom.org has him “narrat[ing] his youthful experience in the National
Democratic (Maoist) movement during the years of the Marcos dictatorship in the
Philippines”
https://libcom.org/article/lest-we-forget-roberto-s-verzola
And a few obits:
Newbytes.ph:
https://newsbytes.ph/2020/05/07/roberto-verzola-ph-internet-pioneer-and-activist-dies-at-67/
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1271704/verzola-father-of-philippine-email-67
He was a man of many hats: an electrical engineer, a pioneering
environmentalist, a mathematics professor, a social activist and a martial law
detainee.
But Roberto Verzola, Obet to friends and family, gained renown among civil
society circles as the father of Philippine email, having designed and setup
email systems for nongovernmental organizations (NGO) in 1992, way before the
internet had reached Philippine shores.
Verzola passed away on May 6 at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City,
after hospital confinement for pneumonia. He was 67.
Environmental lawyer Ipat Luna recalled how Obet had “a decrepit-looking
computer underneath his stairs that was providing a gateway to the NGO sector
to communicate.”
Despite the economic possibilities offered by his innovation, Verzola shut down
his operations in 2000 rather than charge higher fees for his services.
His sister May Rodriguez described him as somewhat the country’s own Don
Quixote: eccentric yet idealistic and wise.
As a University of the Philippines student, he worked for the underground
newspaper Taliba ng Bayan and paid dearly for it.
In October 1974, the then 21-year-old was taken by state forces and tortured.
Between heavy blows of fists and bottles, he was repeatedly electrocuted, an
ordeal that was almost ironic to the young Verzola who then was studying to be
an electronics and communications engineer.
Verzola spent three years in detention, from 1974 to 1977.
After the dictatorship, he moved on to become a driving force behind
environmental groups, among them the Philippine Greens, Center for Renewable
Energy and Sustainable Technology, Systems for Rice Technology and Tanggol
Kalikasan.
When the Department of Agriculture introduced genetically engineered Bt corn,
Verzola led a one-month hunger strike outside the agency’s gates in 2003.
“He never asked for accolades,” said Red Constantino of the Institute for
Climate and Sustainable Cities. “It was enough for him to have the space,
however small, to test his ideas and see them to fruition,” he added.
