"Ayan, ginagatasan na naman si Diwata." (Diwata is being milked again)
For those active on social media especially Facebook, this is the term used to refer to vloggers who are almost there at the Diwata Pares Overload al fresco eatery located at the Diokno Blvd. near Senate Parking Lot.
Owned by Deo "Diwata" Balbuena, the eatery started gaining popularity in February of 2024, when, as luck would have it, 3 significant events happened which set off his momentum, one of those was his feature with Tikim TV, who actually made many unknown eateries famous with their high-quality documentary feature on their Youtube channels.
Now, most, if not all of these 10 vloggers, started featuring Diwata in March and April of 2024, when he's already the talk of the town. What were they before Diwata? Will there be a future for them, if, as Makagago predicted Diwata will lose his popularity? Let us find out.
1. Alvin TV (686k followers)
Rumored to be Diwata's lover because of his closeness with the public figure, Alvin, in fact, as Diwata had claimed, had a symbiotic and not a parasitic relationship with him. It is a platonic one because the Batang Quiapo guest actor said that he's more handsome than Alvin if he were to become a man.
He did have other videos with millions of views prior, because he's known in some circles as a dolomite (makes content about the Manila Bay's dolomite beach) and a BBM (Bongbong Marcos)vlogger and already had hundreds of thousands of followers before he's rumored to be renting a place near Diwata's eatery because Alvin's vlogging the latter almost every day, with multiple uploads within 24 hours.
His non-Diwata videos with over a million views are all about the dolomite beach:
a. Sila pala ang dahilan kaya naging ganito na ang Manila Bay Dolomite Beach ngayon - 1.6M
b. Tumambad ang katotohanan sa Manila Bay Dolomite Beach - 2.9M
c. Nakakalungkot ang sinapit ng Manila Bay Dolomite sa habagat - 1.3M
He is able to rack up 5 or 6 digits views prior to Diwata even if the topic is not about BBM, the Manila bay dolomite beach, or infrastracture projects in the country.
For instance, his "White Sand! Colibri Island, Pangasinan" video has 26.9k views, which is not a bad number, though it is less than 1% of his following.
His Facebook page was created in May 2018.
2. Art TV (441k followers)
Quite lowkey unlike Alvin, he was also called out by Makagago for "milking" Diwata and having amassed more than 10 million views.
Even though he does have many BBM-related videos, he can hardly be called a dolomite vlogger, focusing instead on tourist spots open to the public. He also covers a bit of festivals and sporting events.
Here are the titles of his non-Diwata videos with over a million views:
a. Baby giant nag Slam dunk - 1.3M
b. Parang naka punta kana din sa Venice italy , kapag pumunta ka dito - 6.5M
Surprisingly, based on the date of his first profile picture, his Facebook page was created in September 2022, making it less than 2 years old. It seems like he can overtake Alvin in a year or so.
3. Miz July (33k followers)
Unlike the first two, a large portion of her following can most likely be attributed to vlogging Diwata Pares Overload. She also vlogs about the dolomite beach and bit about random exploration
Here is her sole non-Diwata video with over 500k (she doesn't have millions) views about the dolomite beach:
a. Anong klasing nilalang ito,kabuwanan naman nila kaya dumadagsa sa DALAMPASIGAN ng Dolomite Beach - 768k
Based on the date of her first profile picture, her Facebook page was created in October 2018.
4. Salomo 21 (183k followers)
A member of Philippine Vloggers Elite (group allied to Darryl Yap and Imee Marcos), he regularly attends press conferences of Viva Entertainment. He mostly features political content, with erratic views, sometimes hitting 6 to 7 digits, but his showbiz content are usually 3 to 4 digits, like his video titled "Dindo arroyo Pagpag 24/7 palabas na!" with just 470 views.
His top videos focused on Imee Marcos, Bong Go, infrastructure, and PBBM (esp. regarding pabahay or housing).
He hit it big during the time Senior Agila was trending, getting almost consistent 5 to 6 digit views on his videos. These are the rare times when he actually narrates in front of the camera.
Based on the date of his first profile picture, his Facebook page was created in March 2021.
5. Ninja the Bloggerz (36k followers)
A member of Philippine Vloggers Elite, his real name is Wil Mercena and based on his interviews, he seems incredibly fond of Darryl Yap, going as far as to have Diwata wish him well on the former's new project.
Ninja has some front-facing videos, attends press conferences of Viva Entertainment, and has some videos involving food but he uses the word "Diwata" in the title for clickbait, which he also does in some of his showbiz videos, giving him 4 to 5 digit views.
He is the first Diwata vlogger I know to set up a business there, selling ice candy.
His showbiz content are usually 3 to 4 digits. He has vlogged about dolomite as well as events open to the public like a bodybuilding competition, but did not get much traction.
"Lead Convenor Sec. Lope B. Santos pinaliwanag" was his most dismal performing video recently, gaining only 49 views.
Eeven though he started with a couple of dolomite videos, they did not take off much,as it only gave him 2 to 3 digit views. His channel started taking off a bit with "Ang pag dalaw sa himlayan ng tatay ni BBM sa Libingan ng mga Bayani na si Former President Ferdinand Marcos" which was posted last May 23, 2022.
His Facebook page was created in June 2021.
Stay tuned for our part 2 to be posted before the weekend.
