THEY'RE coming out in droves, dot.com companies hoping to ride on the e-commerce wave or helping create thriving virtual communities for Filipinos--or maybe even both.

One such site is Philcongress.com at www.philcongress.com, which aims to promote greater awareness on legislative issues and encourage participation in government decision-making among Filipinos. While Congress does have an official site at www.congress.gov.ph, the thing about Philcongress.com is that it tries to offer online access to pending important bills, particularly controversial ones. According to them, their goal is to promote the growth of electronic democracy in the Philippines.

In an e-mail interview, Kinetic HTML Co. managing director Karl Emmanuel de Leon told the Inquirer that the important thing is to make the site as interactive as possible. KHTML at www.khtml.com is a web production company that focuses on public affairs, political organizations and virtual communities. Apart from setting up Philcongress.com in the last quarter of 1999, KHTML is also the start-up behind Peyups.com.

"If you try checking the official site of Congress, both the House of

Representatives and the Senate, you won't get much information about the members and the controversial bills," De Leon said. "Also, the feedback loop has not been introduced. So, it's like having a website for the sake of being on the web -- a politically correct thing to do in this 'e-age.'"

How effective a medium is the web already for reaching out to Filipinos and educating them on political issues? De Leon admitted that the country is just starting in this direction.

"How effective it is locally is something we cannot really answer now since what we are doing is the first of its kind in the country," he said. "But a case in point is the response by the Philippine government to a Stratfor report made in the Internet. That shows the power of the medium. People value information to make decisions."

According to De Leon, they hope to introduce more new features to the site. A section for press releases from Members of Congress. These include a section for members to post their press releases online, educational backgrounds and public service records of the legislators, a list of enacted laws starting from the 8th Congress, and a section for the position papers of advocacy and lobby groups.

"KHTML also foresees that the next ten years will see an empowering of grassroots activities as has never before been possible. Networked citizens will change the way politics operates," De Leon said.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based HerbVigor.com Ltd has tapped local partners for the launch of its natural health and alternative medicine portal at www.herbvigor.com. Providing the technical expertise and web transaction savvy was Evoserve, one of the founding behind Edsamail Philippines and an e-commerce pioneer in the country.

Though declining to divulge exact details on the e-commerce services that HerbVigor.com would offer, Evoserve chief operating officer Marvin Tam said that this would naturally involve synergy among the different companies in which Evoserve has a stake.

"That's one of the things we're investigating," Tam replied, when asked if they would offer subscription-based content from HerbVigor.com via the free Edsamail accounts. "But now our focus is on content creation. We have to put meat into our product."

Though admitting that a lot of hype still surrounds local companies, Tam said that the Internet is already a compelling reason by itself to attract companies online. He said that while the delivery infrastructure might not be that solid yet, the Internet is a very convenient complement to traditional channels like the telephone and fax.

Asked if Evoserve plans to list its companies in the local bourse, Tam replied that this would not be likely. He, however, said that this does not mean they do not have confidence in the local stock market.

"You have to remember that our (Internet) plays are not local. It's bringing Filipino content, but Evoserve is targeted regionally. No, it's not that we don't have confidence in the PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange). It's just that we want to think big," he said.

Apart from health, dot.com companies are also tapping into the Filipino love for sports for their Internet plays. While most Filipinos might not be as passionate as the Japanese when it comes to golf, it is one of the country's favorite sports, said Golf.ph Inc. managing director Anne Generoso.

Generoso and company last week held the soft launch of www.golf.ph, which they tout as the country's first golf portal--there's that word again.

Generoso admitted that one of her reasons for putting up a golf site is her new-found passion for the sport. Another is its growing popularity, which makes the site a potential virtual watering hole for golfers.

"The Green Store has an auction part where people can offer their golf equipment in an online bidding. Also, golf stores can sell their equipment online," she said.

Right now, however, the site is still under development, and the e-commerce services have bot yet been implemented. Generoso, however,s aid that all plans should be realized within the year.

She added that they have already invited golf professionals, hoping to make the site an online community for them to interact with other enthusiasts and perhaps own bragging rights over golf handicaps.

"By next year, we also envision asking golf course to put up terminals where players can log on to the site and see how he or she did compared to previous scores. Things like that," she said.