Who is BOB ONG? - (bobong pinoy)

Consider him the mass-market mystery man, a publishing phenomenon whose blockbuster book sales are equaled only by the anonymity he maintains. He is Bob Ong—not his real name—the most unusual best-selling Filipino author you’ve never met.
Here is what can be proven about the enigmatic Mr. Ong: he has written five books, “ABNKKBSNPLAko?!,” “Bakit Baliktad Magbasa ng Libro Ang Mga Pilipino?,” “Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas,” “Alamat ng Gubat” and “Stainless Longganisa,” all of which have a combined sales of almost a quarter million.
His defunct Bobong Pinoy website received a People’s Choice Philippine Web Award for Weird/Humor in 1998. His books are a favorite among Filipinos of all classes and among students—even if they’re not required reading. He has never appeared at any book launching, not even his own, nor on TV.
That Ong has achieved such success in an age when celebrity is often a requisite of effective marketing is indicative of his following. But the fact that he has successfully kept his true identity a secret is even more astounding.
“Even those who know who he is won’t admit that they do,” says Nida Gatus, Ong’s editor at the publisher Visual Print Enterprises. VPE and Ong himself are fiercely protective of that anonymity. Ong only communicates through the Internet. No phone interviews. No photographs. No personal appearances. Ever!!!
At one time, it was rumored that award-winning poet Paolo Manalo is the real Bob Ong. The literary editor at the Philippines Free Press who teaches literature at the University of the Philippines denies this. “I’m flattered that people think I’m Bob Ong but I’m not him,” he says.
Manalo, who actually ran a “Who is Bob Ong?” contest on his blog, offers his view on why Ong is so popular: “Bob Ong is able to articulate the concerns and attitudes of a generation of students who are aware of the very real and absurd contradictions in the world they live in. He writes with the same casual and ironic tone that made his writings on the old website accessible and popular to Filipino readers. The materials he used in his books are those familiar to this generation of Filipinos. One might even call them urban culture lore.”

Writing and being
It could be Ong’s conversational writing style, easygoing yet percussive, with moments of insightful realization. There’s also humor and introspection with remembered details that lead one to believe that he holds the secret of life in the big city, be it in his essays (“ABa”) or in his fiction (“Alamat”). It is ground-penetrating radar of common sense. That Ong derives his ideas from his life in a self-deprecating and thoughtful manner only means that the secret to Bob Ong’s writing lies in Bob Ong’s being.
Most important was Ong’s choice to write in everyday Filipino. “Consider language as a tool,” Ong explains over e-mail. “English would be a saw. Filipino, a knife. My aim is just to peel singkamas (turnip) for merienda. A second language can never replace the first.”Aside from Ong’s own responses, the best information about Ong—or BO as he fondly refers to himself—can be found within the pages of his books.
Even at his tale’s true beginning, it isn’t a prototypical writer’s story. Ong didn’t grow up fancying himself a future author. In fact, he didn’t enjoy writing as a child nor reading as much as would be expected. After a failed attempt at a college degree, he went on to complete a two-year course in a vocational school and another course in writing. Learning, though, is something he loved. Though not a stereotypical reader, he savored books and TV and found that his daily life gave way to pithy anecdotes brimming with perspective.
“Some of the stories in my books have been written as early as 1999,” he explains. “I am my writing style. I don’t write for decoders of treasure maps. I’m an equal-opportunity writer who wants to be read by anyone who can.”
Ong worked as a web developer and a teacher. And he wrote. His distinctive prose pieces began to be published online, and he put together the first crucial piece in the puzzle: the award-winning Bobong Pinoy website. “I created BP because I needed it for my job,” Ong says. “The twist: although impressed, my boss would’ve fired me had he known I was the one behind it.”
In the process of his getting seriously into writing, Ong’s alter-ego was born. He didn’t coin the name. “Someone else did,” he says. “That somebody mistook me online for someone by that name. It was a light bulb moment days after when I noticed that the name was actually in ‘BobOng Pinoy.’ No tough decisions there.” Through his site, Ong gathered fans quickly.


Personal and private
Ong likes to say that, aside from very detailed personal information everyone wants to keep private, everything about him can be found in the books. He says that he is nothing like people think he is. “Quiet and oftentimes boring,” he says by way of description. “You wouldn’t see the Bob Ong you wish to meet. Other than stories that tend to be wordy when told in person, I’ve got no other entertaining qualities
Gatus adds that Ong “knows what he wants, and is very much in charge of his life. He is very meticulous.” He savors surfing the Net and loves music, and thus spends his time burning CDs containing all sorts of mixes.
The interest regarding his real identity bewilders Ong. “Some readers won’t give up the idea that I might actually be a group of people and that my personal anecdotes are fictitious,” he says. “I made references to real people, places and events. I’ve already met some of my readers. There’s nothing mythical about me.”
There are several reasons why Ong elected to maintain his secret identity, but perhaps the most essential is that he wants to keep doing what he does the way he wants to. It’s continuing to create on his own terms. “I don’t cope well with big changes,” Bob Ong writes. “It’s just not for me. Fame comes with a price I’m not willing to pay. I just want to write while living the average Filipino life. I don’t want to be robbed of that.”



Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer