Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Monday, August 8, 2016

(L)Earning Wealth: Successful Strategies in Money Management Book Launch

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Vince Rapisura, founder of Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI), a social enterprise that provides financial literacy training programs to low-income OFWs in 15 countries worldwide, recently released his book on personal finance entitles (L)Earning Wealth: Successful Strategies in Money Management.

At his book launch held on July 30, 2016 at Fully Booked located in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig city, Vince shared his origins and experiences in life from his birth, to his childhood, his opportunities to advocate love for country during his teenage years as among a representative from the Philippines, and that moment when he finally met his partner, up to the creation of his book. He has been teaching microfinance and social entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Manila University for the past 13 years, so it's about time he also comes out with a book that would benefit more than his students.

He shared that Filipinos are known to be resilient but how do we, specifically the poor, exactly cope in times of disaster or emergency?

Eight out of ten of the respondents from a survey revealed that the poor coped through accessing loans. A lot are not aware that this coping mechanism is not good for one’s financial health. Loans should be used for productive purposes only. The research result is an illustration that the poor have low financial literacy levels.

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We now have our very first medal for the country thanks to Hidilyn Diaz, who won second place (silver) in the 53kg weightlifting category competition at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Taipei got the Gold while Korea will be bringing home a Bronze medal.

This is Philippines' first Olympic medal since 1996! That's 20 years after - two decades of waiting for the Philippine flag to flutter at an ‪Olympic‬ games awarding ceremony.

The lady from Zamboanga is on her third consecutive Olympics after earning a wildcard berth in 2008 Beijing and qualifying through rankings in 2012 London. She was the flag-bearer in 2012 London Olympics.

“Naramdaman ko ang presence ni God kanina nung bumubuhat ako,” said Hidilyn Diaz. "I expected to win the bronze going to this competition, na-shock ako nung sinabi sa akin na na-zero yung China.” - Hidilyn Diaz

For decades, we join the Olympics just for attendance purposes only. This time, we are a proud nation because we have a medal.The Philippines will be at the tally board. This is what I call honor for flag and country. This should be the attitude of all our athletes from all sports.

Wazzup Pilipinas Founder Hailed as 2016 Best Choice Achievers Awardee

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We would like to congratulate Wazzup Pilipinas founder, Ross Del Rosario, for his remarkable achievements in the blogging industry. We were just too busy with so many projects and collaborations that we never had time to formally announce the recognition.

The founder of Wazzup Pilipinas (the self-declared Pambansang Blog ng Pilipinas or theNational Blog of the Philippines), recently received an award for "Best Choice Achievers for Accomplishments and Success in Multimedia Advertising Opinion Blogging Industry."

This is not the first time that Ross Del Rosario was recognized for his achievements in the blogging industry. He was previously conferred a similar award a few years ago due to his accomplishments in managing the Wazzup Pilipinas community blog. We should also mention the numerous awards conferred to the community blog site itself. throughout the three years of its existence.

Wazzup Pilipinas has been a very popular blog site for media partnership of events and brands and has partnered with so many organizations and companies including colleges and universities for their events and advocacy programs. It has been known to promote everything that is happening in the Philippines but has also collaborated with international brands and movements.

The awards ceremonies for the Best Choice Awards 2016 was held at the Eastwood Richmonde Hotel located at 17 Orchard Road, Eastwood City, 1110 Quezon City, Philippines on Saturday, June 25, 2016 at 6:00pm featuring celebrity guests and prominent speakers from different government and business organizations.

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Giddy up Banawe! The Red Baron Group that brought you succulent steaks in slates, and the frenzied iced cold drinks featuring ice scramble and green tea matcha frizzies, comes the epic duel of the yin and yang of Asia and the gun-slingin’ hotshots of the old west — Sear Steak Scullery serves folks with exquisitely prepared steaks from a wide range of steak selection, and modern Asian fusion dishes.

Designed to exude an authentic Western themed restaurant with hints of modern Asian vibe, Sear is the only steak place in the area that offers full service semi-fine dining experience that has wide selection of steaks from the famously known USDA Certified Meats to the finest cut of the revered HIDA Wagyu steak flown fresh from Japan.

Sear offers foodies and steak lovers specially seared steak dishes in each order, a technique learned perfectly executed over the years.

The saloon is also loaded with their very own milkshakes, cocktails, fresh fruit juices and hot beverage concoctions ready to attend to any parched fellow.

Sear Steak Scullery is located at 2F, 238 Banawe Corner Panalturan Street Manresa Quezon City and opens from Monday to Sunday; 11am – 11pm, offering dine and wine menus!

You have to get here, cowboy! It’s a bang for every buck, SEAR-iously!

Dutdutan 16: The Biggest Tattoo Expo in the Philippines Is Here Again

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There's an online campaign out there that wants to push the proclamation of 95 year old Wang-od, oldest tattoo artist from Kalinga, as a national artist of the Philippines. Would you agree with this recognition for her?

Tattooing is indeed considered as an art no matter how some people would look at it as desecrating the holiness of our body. After all, it's our body so it's up to us whether we keep it as is or embellish it with all sorts of decorative ornaments may it be permanent or temporary.

The images or text engraved on the skin are in its truest sense can be really creative depending on the artist and the person carrying it. Sometimes, it's the location of the tattoo that makes it more meaningful and significant, most of the time even sentimental, and would represent the character or personality of the bearer.

The tattoo artists are hailed whenever they finish a masterpiece on their clients' bodies, anywhere from head to toe, and even deep within parts of the bodies that are rarely seen. There are times people just have tattoos for only their personal appreciation by keeping it private and for their eyes only, or limited for their loved ones or special intimacies.

Here's your chance to have a tattoo or two, or three, as the biggest tattoo convention in the country is almost here again. Scheduled on August 12 and 13 at the World Trade Center, the event hopes to be a bigger and better venue for all tattoo lovers where all forms of our wild side will get the chance to get out again as we relish on our new tattoo, while enjoying the music, babes, merchandise and everything else that defines us.

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"According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, some 660 drug suspects have been killed to date: 436 in police operations and 224 by unidentified assailants. On the rising death toll, President Duterte, said Thursday, “I do not care. I really don’t care.” But on Friday evening, the President acknowledged the abuses in the battle against illegal drugs – for the very first time - fueling speculations he was high on drugs." - The Professional Heckler

I agree with Richard Branson when he said “Fighting fire with fire won’t work. The Philippines must reverse course immediately and choose evidence-based policies that put people first, reduce harm and put an end to these atrocities.” We should rehabilitate and not kill those drug users. Even those pushers deserve an opportunity to change their ways. The real culprits here are the ones manufacturing the drugs. However, our authorities are only keen of "cleansing" the country of the small time offenders, yet give the big time masterminds a chance to get away (by all means).

Those shoot-to-kill orders could only come from a madman. Only madmen would believe it is a must to kill their fellow human beings. Never give up on humanity because you are one of them.

My issue with what has been going on is the need to "rehabilitate" rather than kill. It is inhuman for a leader to give orders of shoot to kill for drug-related offenders when they could be incapacitated, caught, and interrogated instead to find out the real masterminds.

With regards to what I have accomplished for the country, I have been reporting anomalies within the government for several years already which led to some removal of personnel and closure of offices. However, there are still so many corrupt government officials out there protected by immunity and influential personalities.

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"I wanna be the very best like no one ever was. Gotta catch them all!"

It was reported that some Pokemon Go players are not playing fairly by using the GPS Hack - an app installed on their mobile phopnes which will allow them to seemingly go to different location even though they're at a stand still.

The app deceives the game thinking you are actually at a different location but in reality you are just at the same position as before. This allows the players to level up quickly with very little effort.

Have you tried it yet out of curiosity or intend to really "hack" the game in search of the elusive Pokemons out in the wild?

The Pokemon Go was officially release and available for download at the Google Playstore yesterday, August 6, 2016 but the app was already accessible a few weeks ago via underground. Those who were able to download it before retained their levels, just as my level 4 remained intact upon logging again on my mobile phone.

However, I'm on my way to level 5 with several Pokemons already but I did all of the catching while I am only sitting pretty at home doing no walking at all. Never used the hacks and just waited for those Pokemon creatures to appear. There were lures used when they were available during the first time I downloaded the game manually but now there's none available.

However, I've read online (The Verge) that there are actually several ways to cheat the game:

"As Pokémon Go continues its huge surge of international popularity, there have already been a wide variety of creative methods from various players who have tried in various ways to beat the system, from drones to phone cases to just outright trying to sell accounts.
But new video from earlier this week has raised the stakes again for Pokémon Gohacking, with a unique hardware-based solution to solve the problem of actually having to go outside and walk around to catch pokémon.

Instead of using software to spoof the GPS data being fed to the Pokémon Go app, this latest method involves placing the phone in a radio-frequency-shielded box, and using a signal generator to generate a fake GPS signal which the phone, (and therefore, thePokémon Go app), receives and uses as the "location" of the device.

Then, custom software uses Google Earth and a joystick to slowly change the signal to the phone, simulating walking by changing the faked location of the device."

So it seems creative and ingenious Pokemon Go hacks will continue to emerge due to the popularity of the game. Have you seen people going around like crazy while looking at their mobile phones?

They're probably catching Pokemon as they try to become the very best like no one has ever done and shouts out "Gotta Catch Them All!"

Ascendant Technologies Wins Takeda Digital Healthcare Innovation Challenge

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Congratulations to Ascendant Technologies for winning the Takeda Digital Healthcare Innovation Challenge (DHIC) with their product called "The Finder" - a cloud based Electronic Medical Record Solution which can catch red flags in a basic patient examination and forward them to the doctor specialists for further examination.

The winner, a team of 3 doctors, a nurse and a psychologist, went home with a USD 10,000 check to be used in whatever purpose they want with no obligation or deliverable required from them. However, they also get the chance to work with Takeda Pharmaceuticals International and Takeda Healthcare Philippines to further develop their solutions.

The pitching of 10 finalists was held at the Asian Institute of Management Conference Center on August 6, 2016. A press conference was held a few hours before the pitching session were members of the media got the opportunity to inquire from the key personalities who helped organized the event.

The finalists include six from the Philippines, two from USA, one from Malaysia and one from Thailand. DHIC is a HealthTech pitching competition sponsored by Takeda Healthcare Philippines, Inc. with technical assistance from TechTalks.ph. HealthTech is a term generally used to define software or tech-enabled solutions geared for the healthcare industry.

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We can't get enough of pop icon Mario Maurer - the new celebrity ambassador of Thailand rides a Tuk-Tuk with Kajorndet Apichartrakul, the Tourism Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and Thanatip Upatising, the Thailand Ambassador, along with her spouse, Madame Monthip “Bee” Upatising, plus other key personalities during the grand launch of "Experience Thailand with Mario" mainly organized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The launch cum press conference gave Mario a chance to say, in his own words, why Thailand is worth being everyone's next go-to travel destination. Along with the Tourism Director, he also mentioned his top choices of doing while visit the amazing country of Thailand by enumerating some places to visit, foods to eat and services to try and 'experience."

He mentioned Bangkok and Chiang Mai as his top places to visit, riding a river boat while being massaged, and eating Thai delicacies, among a few more which you can watch more at our seven-part video coverage available at our YouTube channel at http://www.YouTube.com/user/wazzuppilipinas

You can see more photos at our official Facebook page at http://www.Facebook.com/wazzuppilipinas

When asked why Thailand chose Mario as the celebrity ambassador, the Tourism Director just said that we should just look at Mario and see for ourselves why. However, he hinted that it is mainly because Mario is widely recognized all over the world, especially in the Philippines, as witnessed from the jam-packed press conference where most of the attendees were young ladies all swooning in delight upon seeing Mario.

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While we were sleeping, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte named current and former government officials that are allegedly involved in the drug trade.

However, it leads me to wonder why does he need to name them when he could have just ordered their arrest. If he has enough or sufficient evidence against them, he could easily have them rot in jail for the offenses. But it seems the President is more interested in public shaming than having them caught.

What is happening to this country? The poor could not defend themselves because they immediately get killed while those in position have the opportunity to flee or fight since they have been warned via this baffling announcement.

Don't you find it strange that Duterte does not care if the poor die and their families and relatives grieve, while he gives the affluent a chance to redeem themselves by denying the accusation while they work on hiring lawyers and protectors to guard their continued freedom.

Since there are nothing holding them from getting away to other countries with the absence of a hold departure advise, they could be gone by tomorrow.

What really goes on in his head is an enigma. There must be a hidden agenda to all of these expose.

Listed below are all the officials as read by Duterte: