The Culture of Reading Manga in the Philippines

I'm not really a writer (expect errors) nor a Philippine Culture expert. I just woke up one day that my blog was entitled Philippine Culture and Surprises after knowing that the celebration of 18th birthday called Debut is a Filipino culture and not normally celebrated on the other parts of the world.

Now, I wanted to write about my views on the increasing culture of manga reading in the Philippines
and some of the reasons that I believed behind it.

The closest Philippine culture with Manga is Filipio comics or Komiks. But it is not easy to see Liwayway Komiks or Hiwaga comics now. I'm not sure if they are still publishing comics now.
Another form of entertainment is watching TV!

Where is my Anime? 

Young Filipinos are lovers of anime like Dragon Ball, Ghost Fighter and Slam Dunk. During the 90's, television has around 1 hour in the afternoon (maybe 3, 4, or 5pm) dedicated for good anime like these. But these anime was replaced one by one by Telenovelas. Mexican, Spanish, Korean, Filipino series
grabbed the spots of our favorite anime.

The last exciting anime i found aired on Television was Naruto. But it also stopped on the middle.

Some cable channels offers nonstop anime but the majority of Filipinos don't have access or  money to pay for a cable channel. Cable isn't consider as one of immediate need in the household.

Slow Buffering..... 1%
Unlike cable tv shows, Filipinos strive to have access on the internet.  Young filipinos avail of internet plans or rent on computer shop. In the internet, they also search for their anime shows.  However, Internet connections are slow in the Philippines. Too slow.  Anime watching gets less exciting due to buffering.

Bitin Moments
On the other hand, fans who finished all the anime releases and wanted to know more begins to search for manga as most anime are based on manga.  Manga served as the medicine for 'bitin' moments.

So what's the alternative to comics, TV and online streaming ? Manga Reading!
On a different post, I'll share my favorite Manga and Korean Manga (manhwa)