Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Papal Visit: Pope Francis at the Apostolic Nunciature in Manila

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Hoping for a good weather tomorrow at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila. We heard news that people are already camped out at the Ma. Orosa entrance near the area for a chance to be among the first to get a good spot while Pope Francis celebrates mass on Sunday.

If we want the homily of #PopeFrancisPH tomorrow to be understood by more, why not use that Argentine priest who speaks fluent Tagalog as interpreter. Though English is the international language, it would be best for the majority of Filipinos so they could clearly understand the messages of the Pope.

For your information, the Pope's real name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio but uses the name of Francis which he borrowed from St. Francis of Assisi. Is it more appropriate to call him "Lolo Jorge" instead of "Lolo Kiko." He surprisingly has an M.S. Chemistry in University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, but worked as a bouncer before getting involved in the church.

He is currently staying at the Apostolic Nunciature located at the corner of Quirino Avenue and Taft Avenue, Manila, and is also the official quarters of all the visitors from the Vatican, as they embark on a four-day trip here in the Philippines including typhoon-ravaged Tacloban to meet the survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” after their visit in Sri Lanka. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said it is standard operating procedure for visiting popes to stay at the Apostolic Nunciature.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Lolo Kiko or Francisco to some, #PopeFrancisPH started his homily saying "Do you love me?" The crowd said yes, and the Pope replied, "Thank you very much," he replied and laughed. "I am here to be with you. A little bit late, I have to say, but I am here." The fact that #PopeFrancisPH showed up despite storm signal no. 2 is already comforting enough. Pope's insistence on visiting Leyte despite the typhoon shows how important this is for him.

Braving storm, poncho-clad pope visits typhoon zone. Pope's well-wishers refuse to seek shelter amid reports of hospitalizations due to hypothermia. The Pope's heart-warming homily in his Tacloban mass was well-attended by lots of people they massively call as pilgrims. #PopeFrancisPH set aside the prepared English sermon and delivered the homily in Spanish, which allowed him to speak from the heart.

Many pilgrims, wearing raincoats or none, suffered in the cold weather and got drenched from the heavy rains in Tacloban airport

Though words are never enough in times of unspeakable grief but his presence gave everyone some sort of relief. Wearing a yellow raincoat (Are the yellow raincoats on purpose? Really? No other color available?), he shared many words of wisdom on love, trials, and hope as his speech to the people of Tacloban. Pope Francis said to the Yolanda survivors that Jesus "never lets us down" and that "When I saw from Rome that catastrophe, I felt that I need to be here." Pope Francis comforts the Yolanda victims and tells them that "Jesus knows your suffering" and that "We have a Lord capable of walking with us in the most difficult moments of our life." He also expressed "Please know that the love and tenderness of Mother Mary never lets you down."

Nicole Scherzinger Sizzles as Proactiv's New Endorser

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We recently learned that Filipino/Hawaiian/Russian descent Nicole Scherzinger of the famous all-girl group Pussycats Dolls is Proactiv's newest celebrity endorser.

Nicole Scherzinger's charisma knows no bounds and her international sex appeal needs no translation. We've all seen how Nicole rose to stardom. However, that popularity wasn’t always smooth and easy. She was raised in a modest household by her mom and German-American stepfather, but her humble upbringing didn’t deter her from pursuing her burning ambition to become a singer.

Her big break into the pop scene was during her stint as lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls before embarking on a solo career as a recording artist, selling a total of 60 million records. She also has film experience, won Season 10 of Dancing with the Stars and was a judge at the UK and US editions of The X Factor.

Nicole still makes sure that she maintains her radiant and glowing skin. “I feel like in my line of work, I’m always under the microscope. It’s quite traumatic when you have an acne breakout and blemishes because you wake up and you’re hoping that your face is clear,” she shares.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

With online car buying, shopping being the trend nowadays, more and more websites have emerged over the Internet. But only some guaranteed and dished out positive results. One of which is Carmudi.

Carmudi, the leading vehicle platform around the world, has recently tapped the Philippine automotive scene in providing buyers, sellers, and car dealers an opportunity to experience safe and convenient online transactions.

Carmudi Philippines—through its website www.carmudi.com.ph—has been generating positive leads for potential car buyers and sellers in the country since it started January 2014. The website currently has close to 25,000 vehicles in its inventory spanning from cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles; brand new or used.

According to Subir Lohani, managing director of Carmudi Philippines, “Having the most number of listings is not the main thing that defines Carmudi.com.ph and Carmudi in general. We look on the quality of listings and value of proposition that we offer both buyers and sellers of vehicles that defines us.”

Lohani explained, “We envision Carmudi Philippines to become a complete one-stop shop for anything vehicle related such as loans, finding an auto repair shop, tips and tricks for your car, and more. Cars are essentially a lifestyle product. Whether it be the brand, model, make, or color, it tells about your individual personality so Carmudi must also evolve into a lifestyle product which we are in process of doing.”

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Philippines is blessed with so many wonders of nature that it is no surprise many of our tourist destinations are popular worldwide among both local and foreign visitors who are really in search of the best summer getaway.

The tourism efforts of many cities and provinces all over the country are starting to be felt once more as they make their presence felt a lot stronger now that the coming summer season will soon be with us in just a few months.

But many visitors from other countries are not waiting for summer to start planning their holidays, in fact many have started flocking the Philippines to experience its many wonderful attractions especially the numerous white sand beaches and gorgeous resorts and getaways.

Who doesn't love bumming on the Philippines' awesome beaches admiring the paradise-like sceneries, spending some hours basking in the tropical sun, and swimming in its blue and marine-life rich waters.

Summer is still about three months away, but to warm things up a bit, let’s look at these seven gorgeous beachfront properties from Lamudi Philippines that will get you dreaming of summer.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Philippines is set to have a very blessed year to be graced with the Holy Father’s presence this January. Pope Francis’ heart is close to the young ones all over the world, often taking selfies with them but sadly, some Filipino youth still do not seem to be as excited to attend the Papal visit in Manila because they don’t see what’s in it for them if they go.

To bring Pope Francis even closer to the Filipino youth, the graduating class of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) students from the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) launched a marketing communications campaign to bridge the youth to Pope Francis and his message of mercy and compassion using the influence of the Filipino barkadas.

The campaign is entitled “BFF 2015: Bonding with Friends and Francis” and it features an “online-serye”, which revolves around a character named Frankie Francisco, who is trying to convince his other friends Mark, Bea, Kim, and Josh to go with him to the Papal Visit. Each of the characters represent an archetype in a typical Filipino barkada, whom the youth can surely relate with.

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We join the whole country in welcoming the beloved Pope Francis here in the Philippines as he visits us for a few days mainly to personally meet the people of Tacloban - especially the survivors of typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda).

To help our curious countrymen get a glimpse of the Pope, DZRH has partnered with OurLivestream.TV for a live online streaming broadcast of the Papal Visit coverage. This is another technology-driven initiative to bring the news about the Pope a lot closer to the people since the coverage can be watched over our smartphones, or through the web browser via the official site of http://www.ourlivestream.tv.

Wazzup Pilipinas partners with the two mentioned organizations to share the news to everyone online through our blog and social media accounts.

This is highly useful for those who do not have immediate access to a television or could not be near the pope struggling within the vast crowd that all gathered to the many venues and paths that the Pope is scheduled to visit and pass through.

We may not be among the lucky, fortunate or influential ones who were given an opportunity to see and meet the Pope up close and personal, we have technology as our tool to help us update ourselves about the many happenings about the Pope.

#CavEAT: Cavinti Eco-Adventure Tour (Second Day Wrap Up)

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The second day of our #CavEAT: Cavinti Eco-Adventure Tour was more of a leisure walk in the park compared to the first day. There was nobody screaming out loud this time but surprisingly some of us somehow still got wet at one of the activities that we tried out. What was more evident were the sincere smiles and laughter from everyone.

The #CavEAT: Cavinti Eco-Adventure Tour is a Tourism Advocacy Campaign to help generate online buzz for the upcoming Cavinti Water Sports Olympics: 1st International Competition happening on February 8-14, 2015. We were there to visit the site where the event will take place and to tour the other places where visitors could also check out to give them more reasons to agree when we say "It's More Fun in Cavinti" as well.

The early morning wake-up call of the numerous roosters around our improvised sleeping quarters at the Villa Oliveros Resort were no longer necessary since majority of us were already awake due to the 3 am earthquake. The rest who slept even during the earthquake were apparently dead tired from all the climbing we did during our descent down the Cavinti Falls through the metal ladders or stairs designed to test our endurance and courage against our fear of heights.

Honestly, I didn't take a bath in the morning because I already almost froze to death last night when I took a shower. It's quite a challenge taking a bath here at Cavinti due to the cold weather. I just hope nobody was smelling me secretly (and dying of the scent) during the tour. Poor seatmates in the jeepney. Lol!

List Of Things To Keep In Mind When Buying A Home In 2015

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Get your wish list ready, familiarize yourself with the market, get your finances sorted out, and connect with a trusted real estate professional. If you plan to finally become a homeowner in 2015, here’s a list of things to keep in mind to get you moving up the property ladder and owning your dream home.

Global property portal Lamudi Philippines compiles a guide to buying property to supercharge your house hunt

First Stage: The Dreaming Phase

The very first stage of the house-hunting process is the dreaming phase. Imagine yourself living in a particular neighborhood, your kids going to nearby schools, and your entire family enjoying the area’s parks and other amenities.

This phase has no definitive start time or length, so get yourself immersed as thoroughly as possible in the process. Explore neighborhoods, look at photos online, compare listings and property prices, and imagine yourself finally moving into your dream home. Once you get a clear picture, it’s time to move to the next stage.

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It’s a YES! Grammy-award winner David Foster, UK pop sensation and former Spice Girl Melanie C, Indonesian rock icon Anggun and Taiwanese-American pop idol Van Ness Wu have been named as the celebrity judging panel for the season premiere of hit talent search show, “Asia’s Got Talent” on AXN.

Billed as the biggest talent competition in the world, “Asia’s Got Talent” will light up screens across Asia in March on AXN and will feature some of the region’s most incredible performing artists as they compete to take home the coveted winning title.

Hui Keng Ang, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Sony Pictures Television Networks, Asia said, “We have put together a superb panel of judges for ‘Asia’s Got Talent’. This is definitely our most ambitious original series to date and is very much in line with the type of smart, high-quality local programming that audiences have come to expect from AXN."

Paul O’Hanlon, Managing Director of FremantleMedia Asia said, “We’re proud to say that ‘Asia’s Got Talent’ will be the largest version ever of the Got Talent franchise, and our judges bring a depth and breadth of experience and talent worthy of this show.”

From thousands of applicants, the four judges must select Asia's most jaw-dropping, mind-blowing, and breathtaking performances. Those who move on to the semi- finals will face an even more intimidating judge, the AXN audience at home who will ultimately determine who wins the first season of Asia’s Got Talent. Adding to the excitement, the semi-finals and finale will be held at the iconic Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, with the winner awarded a contract to return and perform live at Asia’s leading entertainment destination.