Ma.Dorothy M.

Venus Bob Ong, or Roberto Ong, is the pseudonym of a contemporary Filipino author known for using conversational Filipino to create humorous and reflective depictions of Philippine life.[2] [3] His actual name is not known. The pseudonym Bob Ong came about when the author was working as a web developer and a teacher, and he put up the Bobong Pinoy website in his spare time. The name roughly translates as "Dumb Filipino," used fondly as a diminutive term.[4] "Although impressed," Bob Ong notes, "my boss would've fired me had he known I was the one behind it." When someone contacted him after mistaking him as an actual person named Bob Ong, his famous pseudonym was born.[2] The site received a People's Choice Philippine Web Award for Weird/Humor in 1998, but was taken down after former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada was ousted after the Second People Power Revolution.[5] There have been occasional confusions between Bob Ong and FilipinoChinese author Charlson Ong. However, Bob Ong himself refutes this in his account in Stainless Longganisa, saying his surname is not "Ong" and neither is he even FilipinoChinese. The family name was instead derived from wordplay on the name of his website.[1] The poet Paolo Manalo has also been put forward as Ong, but he has denied this. but most of the Filipino people believe that the real Bob Ong is no other than Lourd De Veyra, host of the popular program "Word of the Lourd" in TV5 [6] The six books he has published thus far have surpassed a quarter of a million copies.[2] One reviewer notes (translated from vernacular Filipino):