However, this is not the first time that the Philippines landed on the international computer virus map. Since the suspected love bug hackers were a trio of Filipinos living in a downscale neighborhood somewhere in Metro Manila, w riters and critics said that the virus revealed how Hollywood had been stuck in the past. American studios, scriptwriters and directors have been clueless about the world outside developed countries racing to embrace computers and the worldwide web, they added. The Philippines is not a particularly computerized, Internet-ready nation, but it's no backwater, either. America Online, Intel, Timex and other giant high-tech companies have their largest Asian operations in the Philippines.
Manila is peppered with Internet cafes.
Internet service providers advertise on billboards. Tiny native computer shops compete against big American mail-order companies such as Dell Computer and Gateway. To some degree, the Philippines' computer literacy owes a debt to Amable Aguiluz V, who in 1978 opened a Computerland store in Manila. To stimulate demand, he started a school that would become AMA Computer College, whose graduates now work for top companies, including Microsoft and Cisco Systems. According to The New York Times' Wayne Arnold, Filipino programmers of the multinational anti-virus company Trend Micro, led by Maricel Soriano in Manila, were responsible for writing the software that were freely distributed globally and killed the love bug.