Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Voting Opens for the First Ever Winner of “Asia’s Got Talent”

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AXN viewers will decide the winner of “Asia’s Got Talent” as voting opens following the culmination of the world’s biggest talent competition in the magnificent and thrilling Grand Final episode that premiered last evening on AXN.

The winner is set to be determined by TV audiences across Asia voting through SMS, Facebook and the “Asia’s Got Talent” mobile app, with details available on http://asiasgottalent.tv/vote. The winner will be crowned in the concluding Grand Final Results episode premiering next Thursday (14 May) at 8.05pm on AXN.

The Grand Final last night was contested by nine acts including six voted through by viewers and three joint ‘golden buzzer’ decisions by judges: David Foster, Melanie C., Anggun, and Van Ness Wu which fast-tracked these acts directly to the Grand Final.

The Grand Finalists gave it their all to win the hearts and votes of TV audiences across Asia, for the coveted title, the US$100,000 prize, as well as the opportunity to return and perform at Marina Bay Sands, where the semi-finals, Grand Final and Grand Final Results shows are held.

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Friendly po talaga ako in real life... I just talk (or write) like I'm over demanding and a slave-driver. I guess this is because I was raised to be a perfectionist and workaholic. I was taught to always try to find ways to stand out among the rest.

I know that we can always do better kasi. Hindi sapat yung pwede na ...or pa-easy-easy lang, enjoy enjoy lang. Because others will leave us behind if we're too complacent in living a life that's good enough. Kaya iniwan ni Ginny (Toni Gonzaga) si Marco (Piolo Pascual) sa Starting Over Again eh. May mga tao talagang mataas ang expectations sa lahat ng bagay especially when it concerns his or her brand.

Brands hire social media managers to entice readers to like their social media pages, posts attractive entries to keep their interest, and engage them with contests, surveys, questions and other campaigns to eventually make them advocates of their brand until they realize they're subconsciously recommending the brand, and the products and services, to their friends.

This is also why brands have regular meetings especially when they are working on a project. Everyone involved in the project will share updates, suggestions, and developments, including the shortcomings, technical difficulties, budget restraints, cause of delays and other necessary information to make everyone aware of the status of a project. Each member of the team has a specific task or assignment in the project but everyone keeps tab of the status of every team member so everyone would know who is not on schedule and who needs some assistance. Everyone openly shares their accomplishments and reports their failures. That's what a good team is all about.

Breakfast at True Deli with Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr

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No kidding! My son and I had breakfast with Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

This festive morning ritual happened last May 3, 2015 at True Deli restaurant located at the Victoria building near GMA-Kamuning EDSA MRT station.

Hearing the date, I guessed you already know that this was during the big "fight of the century" but since Manny Pacquiao lost to Mayweather, I got so sad that this article took several days before I could even write about the very sad day for many Filipinos.

We were all too confident our Pambansang Kamao will win but unfortunately, the Pacman was not as aggressive as we expected. I think everyone wanted a more thrilling pound for pound match between the two. More like when Super Saiyan Goku fought with Vegeta at Dragonball Z TV shows - that was the more likely expectations of the majority but the 12 rounds ended with both men still up on their feet with very little bruises on their faces.

Going back to our morning meal, it was a buffet breakfast of lomi soup, sweet beef tapa, milk fish "bangus" belly, hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs and omelets (more eggs). I couldn't eat more than one plate full since I am on a diet. But honestly, the breakfast choices was not really my kind of treat. I wanted more like hotcakes and waffles, maybe cereals with milk...but wait,,...we were advised it was going to be a true Filipino meal so maybe they could have added the tasty and crispy danggit in the menu.

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Starquest Alliance Production presents "Takbo Para Sa Mga Mandirigma FUN RUN" on May 10 at Quezon City Memorial Circle. Assembly timeis at 5am.

This event is in simultaneous effort to promote the movie entitled, “Mandirigma” (afilm as timely as today’s headlines). “Mandirigma” is a full length film that will serve as a legacy project for the Philippine Marines in line with their 65th Anniversary.

Written and directed by multi-awarded journalist and now film-maker Arlyndela Cruz, main cast is Luis Alandy (GMA-7), Alwyn Uytingco (TV5), Ken Anderson (ABS-CBN), Mon Confiado, Ping Medina, Marc Solis, Carlo Cruz, Jerico Ejercito, Buboy Villar (Kid Kulafu) and some of the homegrown talents of Starquest Alliance Production. “Mandirigma” celebrates the heroism of the Philippine Marines, our front liners and our force of choice against insurgents.

Luis Alandy and cast of the movie "Mandirigma" will be joining the event. They will be the ones to award race finishers. Portion of the proceeds will go to the wounded soldiers of the Philippine Marines and SAF 44 Fallen Heroes' families.

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Many are talking about these mysterious billboards that suddenly appeared in different parts of Metro Manila and supposed to have been posted by a certain Manuel who says "Maghihintay ako" roughly translated as "I will be waiting."

Who is this Manuel and who or what is he waiting for?

There's also an indicated place namely EDSA Shangri-La hotel and a certain date and time in the evening of May 22.

Now what could be happening on the said date at the mentioned hotel? It must be special since the Shangri-La hotels are first class hotels that cater to the affluent. You have to spend quite a lot to organized a meeting at that hotel, or is it probably a big event of one of the top companies in the Philippines, or maybe by some foreigner who's meeting her lady in the country.

I'm intrigued and would like to call up the hotel for some hint but I guess the hotel will not allow me to discover what will really happen on the said date.

If we look closer at the billboard, there's an image of a person writing something on a journal. So is it a long distance love affair as what I've read from some blogs that already posted these similar questions ahead of me or have they guessed wrong.

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Yahoo! today released a number of major updates to Flickr, desktop and mobile, introducing a more intelligent search tool and set of features that make it easier to access, organize, find and share photos and videos across devices. The overhaul brings a seamless, unified experience to the community of over 112 million users, and allows them to more efficiently manage over 11 billion photos on Flickr today.

“At Flickr, we’ve always dreamed of creating a space where you can store and manage a lifetime’s worth of memories,” says Tim Miller, head of engineering at Flickr. “Today, we’re taking that one step further as we bring users a brand new set of tools to unlock the power of 1,000 GB of space. These tools coupled with our advanced image recognition technology will give our community the power to not only access those special moments from their iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, Android, or on the web, but to uncover the ones that they thought were lost forever.”

Three new significant components of this launch include:

• Uploadrs: Users can upload as many as half a million photos from their desktop, an external hard drive, iPhoto, their mobile phone and more, using Yahoo’s new Uploadr for Mac and Windows and Yahoo’s new Auto-Uploadr for their mobile device. Photos and videos currently on the device or captured as new will be uploaded automatically and marked as private, and duplicates will be removed.

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Here's what I wrote for ShopBest magazine for the souvenir issue of the 2015 Best Choice Annual Awards. It is entitled "The Social Media Marketing Revolution" expressing my thoughts about how social media has changed the game play for most businesses and has also somewhat evened the playing field for startups who have very limited funding.

Social media allowed small players to gain a global presence through the help of social media since we all know many of us are in one way or another connected via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other popular social media networks that have dominated the Internet.

Especially in the Philippines where the people love to interact and become involved, the influence of social media has drastically changed the way we live and make decisions. It has evolved into a really "social" form of communication where everyone can immediately give feedback. Sometimes, it's too easy and convenient that it also becomes a dangerous tool that can either make or break a company.

We've heard of great news of long lost families or relatives being reunited, campaigns becoming widely participated at a global scale, but there are also disturbing viral images, trending hate stories, rants, bashings, rumor mongering, and so.

Social media is indeed influential that it can immediately put you into the highest pedestal but can also bury you so deep that you may not want to go back up into the real world.

Read on and enjoy my article below:

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The Right 2 Race (R2R) online game promo from MICHELIN is back! And winners from select countries get the chance to join the MICHELIN Pilot Sport Experience (MPSE), a much-awaited motorsport event, in Sepang International F1 Circuit in Malaysia.

To join, participants may log on to www.theright2race.com from May 13 to June 16, 2015 and play the game on the digital version of Sepang International F1 Circuit. The players’ driving skills on different racing lines and braking points will be tested in the game. Three players from the Philippines with the best and fastest lap times win a trip to Sepang, Malaysia and join in the once-in-a-lifetime MICHELIN Pilot Sport Experience on July 18.

The MPSE is a unique and specialized motorsport event organized annually by MICHELIN. Participants get to ride and drive with professional racers on high-performance vehicles such as the Formula 4, Renault Clio Cup, Lamborghini Super Trofeo and the legendary Formula Le Mans.

The first Right2Race was launched successfully last year in Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Philippines. One of the winners from the Philippines – Ivan Isada, emerged as the overall Champion at the 2014 MPSE. As the ultimate winner, Mr. Isada received an exclusive all-expense paid trip to witness the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours in Le Mans, France in June 2015.

For more information log on to www.theright2race.com OR www.michelin.com.ph .

Have an Absolutely Memorable Day Out with Mom at the FIC Loves Moms 2015

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More than anything, moms want nothing but time for themselves and time with their loved ones for Mother’s Day. This coming Sunday, May 11, treat your mom to a memorable day out at the Fox International Channels (FIC) Loves Moms 2015 in Newport Plaza, Resorts World Manila.

Day in and day out, moms’ pure and unconditional love pushes them give only the best to their families. Co-sponsored by Absolute Pure Distilled Drinking Water, this annual event gives Absolute moms only the best experiences they deserve. Moms can indulge in massages, nail spa treatments, and makeover sessions while kids can get crafty and make moms handmade gifts at the arts & crafts stations. With different booths, games, performances, and other exciting activities, everyone in the family will surely have an enjoyable and memorable day.

Drop by FIC Loves Moms 2015 and give your mom nothing but absolute love on a day that's made just for her.

Wazzup Pilipinas Wins Award for Most Trusted Blog Community in the Philippines

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Our awards keep coming and your Pambansang Blog ng Pilipinas can't help but float in cloud nine for the overwhelming recognitions that won't stop since I started the WazzupPilipinas.com blog way back March 2013.

We're only more than two years in the blogging industry yet we've been recognized by several award-giving bodies as early as our first few months - short of a year - when we decided to make our own blog mostly dedicated to Philippine events, features and destinations.

2015 is no doubt a great year for WazzupPilipinas.com as it continues to bring in so many collaborative opportunities aside from the radio show segments at Radyo Inquirer, we are also now connected with Radyo Uno, and the new TV show we are so proud to call our own - the Wazzup Pilipinas TV - the TV version of WazzupPilipinas.com. Our alliance with many members of the media will surely continue to grow and prosper.

Last night of May 7, 2015 was another accomplishment for WazzupPilipinas.com as it received another recognition for Most Trusted Blog Community in the Philippines conferred by the Best Choice Awards Council with its chairman, Wilfredo Lemque Jr. leading the awards night held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ortigas.

WazzupPilipinas.com founder Ross Del Rosario was also awarded a Best Choice professional award for Most Innovative Tri Media Professional.

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Your favorite Pambansang Blog ng Pilpinas recently received an award on April 25, 2015 for Best Innovative Social Blog Site in the Philippines at the awarding ceremonies of the 10th Q Asia National Product Quality Excellence Awards held at F1 Hotel in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City.

What was great about this award is a lot of other awardees came from different parts of the Philippines. I was expecting only Manila-based businesses but was surprised to see quite a number of top emerging new businesses making a name for themselves.

Organized by the same publisher of Q Asia magazine, the 2015 National Product Quality Excellence Awards recognized several businesses with exceptional performance including business men and entrepreneurs who have exceled in their chosen fields of expertise.

Hosted by talents coming from the top television networks of the country, and some noteworthy performers as entertainment for the awards night, the F1 ballroom was filled with several business people all deserving to be acknowledged for their outstanding products and services.

WazzupPilipinas.com founder Ross Del Rosario received the award in behalf of the fast rising and most awarded blog site in the country. We have so many awards that we lost count already. I think we stopped counting when we reached the 10th award, but continues to take our efforts always up a notch.

Red Ribbon Celebrates Mother’s Day with Sweet, Unforgettable Treats

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Red Ribbon, the country’s leading bakeshop, pays tribute to the special women in our lives – our mothers. This Mother’s Day, Red Ribbon celebrates this special day with the all-time classic limited edition Mother’s Day Black Forest cake and the Mother’s Day Mamon. The Mother’s Day Black Forest Cake and Mother’s Day Mamon will both be available in Red Ribbon stores nationwide from May 8 to 10.

The Mother’s Day Black Forest will feature deliciously rich chocolate roses on top of the cake. This edible floral bouquet complements the confection’s soft, moist chocolate cake sprinkled with a generous amount of glorious chocolate shavings atop fluffy, white cream icing and punctuated by juicy, sweet cherries. This delightful cake makes a perfect gift for any mom to enjoy.

On the other hand, the Mother’s Day Mamon will have that soft, light, fluffy, white chiffon mamon and feature colorful, Mother’s Day-themed toppings. These special mamons are packaged in special gift boxes that are great for giving away. These will come in packs of 3s and are affordably priced at P120.00 only! Even kids can make a gift of this to their moms.

These classic, elegantly rich and sumptuous confections are both feasts for the taste and are guaranteed to say “I love you, Mom” in more ways than one.

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Pregnancy and childbirth complications are some of the world’s leading causes of maternal death in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization. In fact, global figures indicate that one in seven women will face complications during their pregnancy. Oftentimes, mothers must endure that pain during the process of giving life.

The life of a mother is threatened when giving birth since health complications are not far from taking place. These complications, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, include prolonged labor, abnormal positioning of the fetus, umbilical cord prolapse or compression, placenta previa, and excessive bleeding.

“During these times, mothers endure so much pain to the point of giving up, but they continue to give birth to show us how wonderful it is to live,” says Carmie de Leon, Vice President for Sales and Marketing of Healthway Medical.

This Mother’s day, we are given enough reasons to make up for what our mothers endured starting from the day she brought us to life until now—and what better gift can we give our moms than the gift of health and wellness?

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This Mothers’ Day, a little sugar goes a long way! Brotzeit, the popular German Bier Bar and Restaurant, is treating moms with well-deserved pampering in the form of delectable and deliciously rich dessert.

From May 6 to 12, diners who celebrate this special occasion at Brotzeit can spell “Ich liebe dich, Mama” or “I love you, Mom” with a complimentary dessert for moms with every entrée ordered. As an additional treat, you can get P500 gift certificate for use on your – or your mom’s – next visit.

If you think German cuisine subsists mainly on beer and bratwurst, you are in for a surprise with Brotzeit’s wide selection of scrumptious sweets. The restaurant’s dessert menu is nothing short of sugary heaven for those with a sweet tooth, which includes: Schokokuchen, a warm chocolate cake served with Stracciatella ice cream; Apfelstrudel, baked dessert of apples, spices, and raisins in a flaky served with vanilla ice cream; Eiskaffee, Bavarian iced coffee served with toasted almonds; Gemischtes Eis, mixed ice cream topped with toasted almonds; Eis auf Cookie, cream cheese ice cream on cookie cup; Topfennockerl, sweet cheese dumplings; Käsekuchen, Baked cheesecake topped with blueberries; and Schwarzwalder, a rich, flourless Valrhona sponge cake with chocolate mousse and kirsch.

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Filipinos are fast to hate foreigners who they feel humiliate or shame us especially when they curse or call us with names like we are such an inferior race. We don't want to be treated like we belong to the lowest kind of race in this planet. Nobody does!

Take for instance the so called Thai national allegedly being branded as a racist for calling us "Pignoys" coining the words "pig" and "Pinoys." He called us “low-class slaves” and “wriggling cockroaches” on social media so he's now facing deportation back to his country, or some news say he was transferred to a different branch of Cognizant located in another country. I was disgusted by this man's racist comments. The comments were particularly offensive, not to mention completely false.

Despite a public apology, Koko Narak, otherwise known as Kosin Prasertsri, is still hated by a lot of netizens all wanting a piece of him. “I’m very sorry for what I’ve done to break your heart by posting the racist remarks on my personal Facebook and ASEAN Community page. I really hope that all Filipinos whether in the Philippines and abroad will forgive me for what I’ve done. Since in my deeply (sic) heart I love the Philippines and its people” says the Thai national.

Netizens would comment "Have you seen those cruel comments he had posted? That's more than insult and degrading to the bones of the Filipinos. With his repeated posts in different dates ,it was never his intention to say sorry until he's receiving threats for his life. He's making a beautiful life here but yet he's so insecure about our race. That Thai has no room in our country!"