PASSIONATE Linux advocate and local information technology (IT) pioneer Manny Amador was found dead by authorities on Friday in his rented house in Cebu where he had relocated to work for open-source firm InfoWeapons.
He turned 49 on July 7
Amador, brother of theater actress Pinky Amador, apparently died in his sleep because of cardiac arrest that may have been triggered by diabetic complications.
Sketchy reports indicated he might have been dead for three days before being discovered by local police. He reportedly lived alone in his apartment in Lahug City.
While in Cebu, Amador also worked as correspondent for an IT publication. He also maintained at least three blogs, which served as his outlets for his many persuasions.
Aside from being a hardcore techie, Amador was also an ardent anti-RH Bill advocate, an avid motorcycle enthusiast, and former lead guitarist of the seminal Pinoy hard-rock band “The Breed”.
But the work that defined Amador was his involvement in consumer activism in the early days of the Internet in the Philippines. He was a leading light in the local IT scene when open-source was also just gaining a foothold in the country.
As president of the Philippine League for Democratic Telecommunications Inc. (PLDTi), Amador was deeply involved in opposing telephone metering which was being proposed then.
He also led PLDTi in suing PLDT for P100 million after the telco giant included his group in a case against Gerry Kaimo who held the domain PLDT.com then.
As a fervent open-source supporter, Amador said in the same interview said that an effective answer to software piracy would be the promotion of open-source software.
Born and raised in Manila, Emmanuel “Manny” Amador graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in AB Communication Arts and AB Philosophy.
